Alterations
by Wyle23
Summary: Things change all the time. What is fun and fulfilling one day may be mundane and dissatisfying the next. For Jack, evil has always been the way to go. But what if the fun of it were lost? What if its oh so attractive luster began to diminish? Nothing stays the same forever, but not all changes are bad.
1. Chapter 1

The ruse had gone perfectly – better than expected actually, considering those Xiaolin Losers hadn't the slightest clue. You'd think that at least one of them would have heard his Ninja-Bot smashing through the many shops of that coastal market as it hightailed it out of there, but, hey, he wasn't going to question it; their hard of hearing was not his problem. What was his problem, though, was the Wu he'd collected. Jack had no use for it: He was an evil genius with robotic minions that were vastly superior to zombies.

'_They definitely win in the intelligence department_,' the pale teenager thought to himself while walking down yet another teal-colored hallway, the ends of his black trench coat swaying with each step.

Fortunately, not long after he'd gotten the useless Wu, PandaBubba had given him a call to make an offer for it: The Zing Zom-Bone for four state-of-the-art Koi-Bots. Jack had been skeptical at first, since he was pretty sure the mob boss didn't know a thing about robotics. However, after an explanation of what upgrades were made to said bots, Jack had been more than convinced to go through with the trade; armor plates made from a strong titanium alloy, upgraded weapons, and a new menacing design was just too good to pass up, though he never let his excitement show in his voice.

Too bad the meeting point wasn't so good, though. The Assembly Room #4 Lookout within the Tohomiko Electronics Skyscraper was the place PandaBubba told Jack to meet him with the Wu, and this was a problem for two big reasons: Tohomiko Electronics Skyscraper was huge, hence the word "skyscraper"; and he had not the slightest clue where anything in said building was, let alone the Assembly Room #4 Lookout. He was going to ask the mob boss what floor the damn room was on right after it was named as their meeting point, but PB had hung up on him right after saying it.

The lack of respect for an evil genius such as himself was incredible, to say the least. Not even a "goodbye" or "farewell"? He understood that they were both evil and all – himself to a much higher extent – but that didn't mean common courtesy had to get thrown out the window. That kind of thing should be reserved for the good guys!

Now, here he was wandering around within this gigantic building without a clue where he was as he looked for some kind of map to help him out. This had been the case for around fifteen minutes so far, and, oh, what an enjoyable fifteen minutes it had been. He'd had the pleasure of listening to Wuya's incessant complaining for pretty much the entire duration of that time, not to mention the time it took him to reach the building itself.

Jack warily glanced at her ghostly form from the corner of his eyes as he walked, narrowing them in annoyance a second later.

When focus was brought back to his front, though, the red-head noticed someone ahead of him. It was a somewhat old man garbed in an all-blue outfit, save for the brown shoes on his feet. The guy was just standing there, staring at Jack in a questioning manner while he leaned on the mop in his hands. When Jack neared him, it seemed like Janitor Duty was about to question him, but the teen gave him an evil glare that swiftly made the man look away; he simply started mopping the floor in a startled manner and let Jack pass by without a word. The self-proclaimed evil genius smirked triumphantly to himself as he, once again, continued to survey his surroundings, though he could have sworn he heard a ghostly snort come from behind him.

Jack ignored Wuya. Walking on, he eventually came before a T-junction. A left turn was his immediate decision. No need to give the hag any clue as to just how lost he was. How she hadn't made the connection yet, what with how long he'd been walking around, was unknown, but he was thankful for it nonetheless.

However, not thankful enough to not be ticked off by how elusive a map of the building was proving to be. Seriously, was there not one within this floor of the structure? How could such a thing even be thought to be practical for such a large building!? Who designed this–

"You're lost, aren't you?" came an unmissed voice from behind him. He could almost see the irritated, withering expression on her "face".

'_Wonderful_.' Thankfully, he was able to suppress the exasperated sigh that wanted to be released.

"What?" Jack replied with faked shock, still looking ahead of himself, "I'm not lost," he denied with a dismissive wave in her direction, "I'm just... taking the scenic route."

Scenic route indeed. The path he'd walked throughout the building so far had shown him many different robotic inventions. One of them had actually been similar to a creation of his own, its name being "U-Bot". The thing had the ability to mimic its owner's appearance, as well as their personality. It was small, though, meaning that the cloning process would only produce a miniature replica of the owner. Really, the robot was nice, but he'd already made something far better: Chameleon Bot. So CB didn't mimic the personality of the one it morphed into perfectly. His creation still transformed into an actual perfect replica of whoever it impersonated (instead of a miniaturized one), could fight, and had a two-way video feed. The damn thing was designed _and_ built by him, so how could it not be superior?

A moment later, Wuya was floating by the right side of his face. "You're a terrible liar," she stated. Her ghostly arms were crossed, and the look on her mask-like face was sharpened with annoyance.

"And you're a terrible side-kick," Jack shot back. Upon seeing Wuya's expression scrunch up in anger at being called the side-kick of the the duo – probably getting ready for a screeching rebuttal – he followed it up with a strong exhale through the right side of his mouth, blowing her away before she could speak. An amused smile came upon his features afterwards, though there was a sense of relief, too. Not only did the action save his sense of hearing, but smell as well, for it removed the stench that she somehow managed to emit – even as a freaking ghost – from his nostril's smelling range. He'd like to keep all his senses in working condition, thank you very much.

Jack hoped that the conversation would end there but no such luck. After letting out a low, frustrated growl, the ghostly witch spoke again, "Are you ever going to at least tell me why we are here?"

She'd graced him with questions of this sort many times during his fifteen minutes of wandering this tower. Just thinking of it made him groan. Somehow, she'd actually managed to get naggier since his accepting her back. Nonetheless, he still managed to give her the same response that he'd given her before: a dismissive wave of his hand towards her, which, to his immense pleasure, angered the crap out of her, if the furious growl he received was any indicator.

Perhaps she'd implode from anger eventually. That would definitely be a great turn of events.

'_Then again_,' he thought while quietly snickering to himself, '_she just might when she finds out what I'm here for. She's always so gung-ho about collecting all the Wu, after all_.'

His humorous thoughts were brought to a halt as he entered what appeared to be an elevator lobby, if the elevators to his right were any indication. There was a bit of furniture around the area, but he only cared for what was imprinted upon a large marble structure on the right side of the room: a map.

"Finally!" Jack yelled as he ran to it. Upon reaching it, he immediately searched for what floor the Assembly Room #4 Lookout was on, skimming his finger down the different locations.

"No, nada, nein, negative, não, ne, ugh–"

Yet another growl came from behind him, pausing Jack in his skimming. He took a side-glance at Wuya. Narrowed eyes, sharp ethereal teeth, and appendages moving in a frenzy was what met his sight. Focus was promptly directed back to his previous action of skimming the newfound map.

'_There we go!_' he thought excitedly with a grin as he spotted what he was looking for. '_Floor 20, go right after taking one of these two elevators... and then the fourth left turn. Sweet._'

With a contented smile, he walked over to the closest elevator, pressing the call-button next to it . After a few seconds, it arrived and the doors parted. However, as Jack walked in, Wuya flew straight through the back of his head. He immediately let out a loud yelp, an intense shudder following the action as his body tensed up. The witch-hag smiled smugly at him from within the elevator. Jack glared at her, now holding a hand against his chest whilst taking long calming breaths. With a final shuddering shake of his body, the lad finally managed to speak: "Dammit, Wuya, you know I hate it when you do that!"

She immediately flew right up to his face, making him pull back his head a bit. "And you know I hate wasting time! You should be searching for the Shen Gong Wu you so stupidly let get away in all your incompetence, NOT lollygagging in this tower!" she replied, just as angrily.

"Boundaries," Jack muttered through clenched teeth, a hand now covering his nose. When she backed off, he lowered the hand while rolling his eyes.

"Well," he flippantly began while finally entering the elevator, "it's not like you had to tag along with me." Once inside, he promptly pressed the appropriate button on the control panel. "Seriously, you're even lamer than me with how you follow me around like a lost puppy," the red-head continued, now crossing him arms and trying to repress the absolutely revolting experience she put him through moments ago. When he turned to look at her, though, she was giving him an amused look; and upon realizing his mess up, he pointed a finger on an outstretched arm at her, yelling, "That didn't come out right!"

The witch just smirked at him in amusement, following the action up with the closing of her eyes and shaking of her head in a condescending fashion. Jack narrowed his eyes in irritation, sticking his tongue out at her a moment later.

Thankfully, that seemed to be the end of the conversation, leaving a much appreciated silence. He leaned his back on the elevator as he waited, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his black jeans a moment later. During the wait, his eyes happened a glance upon the floor, where he noticed an engraving. It read "Tohomiko Electronics Skyscraper ." Jack's eyebrows scrunched up in thought at the words, though not for the first time. There was something oddly familiar about the first part of the name: Tohomiko. He just couldn't place his finger on why that was, though.

Jack didn't get to ponder on it long, for only a moment later the doors of the elevator opened up to allow him entry to his designated floor. Once again dismissing his thinking of the name "Tohomiko" being familiar as unimportant, he stepped out and immediately went down the hallway to his right. There would be time to figure it out later.

As he walked, the teen eventually entered a rather large new hallway and noticed that the walls on either side of him were adorned with many big, framed pictures displaying some of the company's products, some of said products even being shown off in display cases. Jack peered at each of them as he walked by, a look of interest on his face as he eyed the artwork and some of the details being given about the items. Most of them seemed to be toys of sorts, but they were robots nonetheless and seemed to be high quality ones, from what he could tell. Everything else was either a gaming platform of some kind or a video game.

After a few minutes of peaceful, slow walking while peering at each piece of technology on display, he'd actually managed to forget of Wuya's presence. That is, until she, unfortunately, spoke again: "Look at all this useless junk," started Wuya in distaste from behind him, Jack giving her an annoyed side-glance as a result, "Don't tell me we're here so you can go _shopping_?" When he refocused on the 3D virtual reality console he'd previously been inspecting with curiosity, his face took on a wry smile; she was somewhat close to the truth, he supposed.

His eyes widened in surprise, though, when he turned to look ahead for what displayed tech he would be coming upon next.

A bit ahead of him, near the wall to his left, were four display cases spread evenly from one another by a few feet, each with their own respective poster hanging on the wall behind them. Inside each display case was a game cartridge: part one through four of the Goo Zombies series. However, it was the fourth one that had Jack so excited, and only a moment after seeing it, the goth teen sprinted right up to its display case, plastering his face and hands against it as he looked at it in awe.

"A _fourth_ part!? When did this happen!?" He yelled against the casing. He must have really been preoccupied with his bots and Wu hunting to have missed such a major occurrence in the world of gaming.

"_Now_ what are you yelling about?" Wuya inquired as she approached the top of his left shoulder to peer at what had garnered all this attention from the self-proclaimed evil genius. She looked at the cartridge questioningly, an eyebrow lifting after a moment of observing it.

"What is it?" she asked, somewhat grumpily.

"Apparently the newest addition to the greatest franchise in gaming, or at least as far as anything involving zombies goes." He replied, though his voice was slightly muffled by his face still being pressed against the glass display case. Wuya heard him nonetheless.

"A game?" Wuya asked, deadpanning at jack, "_This _is why you have been here for the last eighteen minutes wandering around like a lost child? So you could _steal a game_?"

It took Jack a few seconds, to Wuya's annoyance, to realize she'd said something.

"Wait, what?" the red-head responded with incredulity whilst he turned toward her. "No!" He replied indignantly. "Geez, Wuya, I know I've done a few questionable things in the past, but that's just senseless."

'_Albeit tempting_,' He added in his head. Perhaps after the trade...

Wuya raised a brow at him, giving a look that clearly told him she thought he'd done _way more _than _just a few_ questionable things in the past and that they were _well _beyond just questionable.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Oi, don't give me that look," started Jack while waving a finger at her, as if scolding her. "As if you've never made a single bad choice in your..." he paused, thinking for a moment, "whatever you wanna call your current existence," the teen finished as he turned and began to walk past her towards his destination, all the while waving a hand at her in a circular motion.

"Yes, I'm looking at one of them right now," she snidely replied from behind him, following.

"And yet you're still here," Jack grumbled under his breath.

"What?" Wuya snarled from behind him.

"Nothing," he replied, turning his head to flash her what was, in his opinion, a very convincing smile.

The ghostly hag gave him a quizzical look. She simply grumbled to her herself, though, thus ending yet another one of their absolutely decorous squabbles that he had the immeasurable pleasure of taking part in. He proclaimed himself the victor of this one.

As Jack neared the left turn at the fourth junction presented to him in the hallway, he began wondering why he even took her back. He already had his detecto-bot, meaning he no longer needed her for locating Shen Gong Wu, and that was generally all she'd ever been needed for in the past. There was her vast knowledge of the Wu and all magical things, but that came in handy only a couple times: Mala Mala Jong and the Fearsome Four. Actually, the first one didn't even count, since she betrayed him _right after _he'd assembled Mala Mala Jong. The only thing she had left to barter with for their partnership was that she could tell him what the Shen Gon Wu did beforehand. So the question was, how much was that worth to him?

Jack took a side-glance at her over his shoulder after that thought, now making the turn.

He'd have to think about it later, for when he looked back ahead of himself he was only a few yards from a set of teal metal double doors, a white sign above them with "Assembly Room #4 Lookout" written in red letters. On both doors was another that read "staff only" in white text. Ignoring it, he entered through the right one using the push pad.

Immediately upon opening the door and stepping in, PandaBubba came into view, standing on a long metal platform that apparently overlooked the fourth Assembly Room. As he walked along the platform, the lower level came into view. On it were many conveyor belts with workers at them that were diligently assembling different products of the company piece by piece. Nothing particularly interesting to him.

"Alright, PandaBubba," Jack called out to get said man's attention as he approached him, "I've brought the Zing Zom-Bone just like you–"

"You've had it this entire time?!" Yelled a confused and angry Wuya. Jack couldn't help but grimace and cover his ears, as well as jerk away from her a bit. She really knew how to annihilate his ears; it was a wonder how he didn't need a hearing aid after the last six months he'd been with her. Why she insisted on yelling like he was on the moon directly into his ear he would never know.

"Yeah," started Jack, annoyed as he reopened his eyes and rightened his posture, "thanks for the ringing in my ears, o' obsolete one."

"Why are we here, Jack?" growled Wuya through gritted... mask, looking absolutely livid. Clearly she was expecting something she wouldn't like. The insult had probably helped to upset her further.

'_Great, this again_,' Jack thought morosely. It hadn't even been five minutes and she was already trying to start another bicker session on some apparent flaw of his. Like she even knew what evil was. Over fifteen hundred years and the hag still hadn't known that it's gloating first, _then_ vaporizing. Ms. "I wreaked havoc and destruction when the Earth was still young, and mankind was just climbing out of the mud." Yeah, well, at that rate, it was gonna take another fifteen hundred years for her to even be half as evil as Tubbimura.

"Could ya just chill for once?" began Jack in an annoyed tone. "Seriously, just shut up and you'll see."

"Let. Me. Guess." Wuya grounded out. "You're going to trade _another_ Shen Gong Wu that should be _mine_ to this man for something inconsequential. _AGAIN!_ " she roared at him.

Amazing how, just like that – not long after posing it – he had the answer to his question: _not this_. If knowing what a Shen Gong Wu did before using it meant feeling like he needed to carry ear plugs and, just in case, a bottle of Advil everywhere he went, he was more than willing to give it up. "Ignorance is bliss" never sounded truer than it did now. Seriously, she was taking the fun out of evil, and that was just a no no.

Plus, it wasn't like it'd be that difficult to find out on his own anyways. The monks, for as dumb and annoying as he knew they thought him to be, proved to be idiots themselves. They – Omi in particular – were always yelling about the Wu and usually would blurt the item's power out or at least the name. In the latter situation, it'd just be a matter of looking up info on it.

"Quick question: why are you here?" Jack asked, crossing his arms and taking on a irritated look of expectancy with narrowed eyes.

"What?" asked a rather perplexed Wuya, taken aback by the question.

"Why are you with me? _AGAIN_." he clarified, mimicking her voice for the last word. "Last I recall," he pointed a thumb at himself, "I told you", then pointed to her, " to take a HIKE, since I don't need you anymore." Snidely, he went on, "Still don't, actually, since you do quite literally _nothing_."

"What are you trying to say," Wuya inquired, glaring menacingly as she ascended up to his head.

"To get lost!" Jack yelled in her face, pointing a thumb over his shoulder. "Go give someone else perforated eardrums," he continued in an annoyed tone while returning her glare with one of his own. He then had a thought that caused him to let out a small chuckle, starting again in a derisive tone, "Or better yet, go haunt some abandoned prison or castle, like a good evil spirit."

The moment those last words left his mouth, Wuya yelled in outrage, looking up in a rage with wide eyes as she fisted two appendages in front of herself. Immediately following the quick action, she started futilely punching at his face, her "fists" going right through him due to her intangibility.

'_Boom_,' thought Jack with immense amusement, a satisfied grin plastering onto his face. Sure, this wasn't_ exactly _what he'd been hoping for, but it was good enough. She was yelling at him – something vulgar no doubt. However, Jack was too preoccupied with his current glee at her rage to comprehend what she was saying, close as she was.

'_Jack Spicer, you have officially reached new heights in evil_,' he commended himself mentally.

The only sensible things he made out – her breath did take him a bit out of his glee, at times – from her bout of fury were "ever get my body back, I will make you pay for this insolence, boy" and "bring evil spirits to your house". The first one he was apathetic towards, but the second one... not so much. It didn't remove the smile from his face, but in his head, he was actually pondering about whether she could actually do that or not. He was going to ask her, but he'd begun to pay attention too late, and she was now gone.

'_Great, now I'm afraid to go home... Lovely_,' he thought with a groan.

'_However!_' Jack perked up again. '_She's finally gone!_' He couldn't help but hope it would be permanent this time. It was too bad he'd likely see her during his Wu-hunting quests.

'_Eh, joyous day nonetheless_.'

And with that, the goth began looking forward to a relatively Wuya-less future. Jack couldn't help but think he was forgetting something, though... or someone, rather.

Looking to his left, he saw PandaBubba about twelve feet, give or take, away from him, looking rather bewildered, albeit a bit amused. The mob boss had likely heard every bit of Wuya's departing words that he himself had mostly ignored whilst basking in the glory of said witch's "implosion". It was quite surprising that none of the workers down below were staring up at him.

The red-head coughed into his hand and cleared his throat in an attempt to dissipate the awkwardness left in the atmosphere from Wuya's departure. It seemed to work, as PB's facial expression sobered up in response.

"So," Jack began, approaching PB once again, "like I was saying before, I've brought the Zing Zom-Bone, just as you requested." Jack reached into his trench coat and pulled out said Wu as he said this, handing it to the mob boss upon reaching him. "Now, where are those state-of-the-art Koi-Bots you promised me?" he demanded rather petulantly.

PandaBubba eyed the Wu in his hands with a devious smile. "Just like we agreed upon, Spicer," PB replied, lifting an arm and snapping his fingers. Immediately after, the double doors on the other end of the platform opened and in flew four fish-shaped robots in a straight line; they had a more aggressive look than his model, were showing off much beefier weaponry, and even had sharp, menacing teeth within their mouths.

Jack promptly ran past PandaBubba and up to them excitedly, like a kid being given a new toy. He hugged the first one he came into contact with, saying, "They're... they're beautiful," in a dreamy voice. After getting over his initial excitement, the teen began to inspect some of the weapons a bit closely, but didn't get much of a chance since PB soon began speaking to him.

"So, Spicer, from one evil genius to another, how _did_ you get that Wu?" Inquired PandaBubba, eying Jack curiously.

"Funny you should ask, PB," started Jack, placing a hand on his hip while pointing a finger gun at the mob boss, looking quite smug. A second later, he lowered his hand and began to elaborate, "It was quite simple, really. I disguised one of my robots as a ninja, and while everyone else was fighting, he snagged the Wu and quietly disappeared unnoticed. Even Clown Face didn't notice." Okay, so maybe he was fibbing a _little bit _with the "quietly" part, but it was generally a true story.

Jack imagined Pandabubba was quite impressed. It wasn't everyday that one got to hear the amazing tales of his genius intellect triumphing over those who opposed him. And it was not because it rarely happened... He just ran into a bit of bad luck sometimes was all.

"Nice work," commended PandaBubba. "When we first met, I took you for an incompetent boob."

"Well, I do my best," the red-head replied with pride, eying a raised, overturned hand as he ran its thumb along curled fingers. Following the action, Jack looked back to the broad man.

"Anyways," he started again, sobering up a bit and turning more curious, "now that you've got the Zom-Bone, what's up next in your agenda?" His lips then curved up into an evil smirk. "Something evil I hope."

"Of course," replied PandaBubba in a low, menacing voice. The broad man then walked to the edge of the platform to look over the metal railing. "You see, zombie workers are _very_ good at following orders." He then reached over and pointed the Zing Zom-Bone down towards the workers, calling out its name. The Wu then opened up – sort of like a clam – and shot out a yellow ray of energy that enveloped the workers down below.

Jack watched as the workers turned into mindless zombies that would be slaves to PandaBubba's will. When the yellow energy dissipated, they all had rather dead looks on their faces; their eyes were wide open but unfocused, and some of them even had their mouths hanging open.

'_Yup, absolutely no intelligence_,' Jack thought as he leaned on the railing with his arms crossed atop it, watching on with mild amusement whilst PB barked orders at the zombies. When he was finished, the crime boss turned towards Jack.

"With a work force of slave labor, I will soon control the entire electronics market," declared PandaBubba in explanation. His customary evil laugh then came forth, and Jack joined him with his own, just for the fun of it. Laughing evilly was one of Jack's favorite past times after all; he'd take every opportunity to do so.

"Nice laugh, PB," complimented Jack when their laughter ceased. '_Not as good as mine, though_,' he added in his head. Nobody had a better evil laugh than him; it was just a fact. Well, except maybe Chase; he was pretty cool, even if he did lose to Master Monk Guan.

"Hey, you know, we should partner up," Jack suggested, starting to raise his arms whilst a nefarious, ecstatic grin took over his features. "Between your access to technology and my genius, we could rule the world!" The proclamation ended as the teen's arms rested at an arc in front of him, fingers tensed and curled like claws.

"Tempting," PandaBubba retorted, seeming to consider it, "but I'll pass."

"Huh?" Jack gaped at him, arms immediately dropping in let-down.

"My interests lie in the ruling of Hong Kong, not the world," PandaBubba replied simply.

Jack let out a frustrated sigh, saying "fine, fine" while waving a hand dismissively at the mob boss. The teen then leaned on the rail of the platform again, propping an elbow on it and resting his cheek upon a hand, a small pout on his face.

Well, it wasn't like he was going to be a loyal partner anyways, something he was sure went both ways, if the last time they worked together was any indicator. It would be a game of "who betrays who first". Too bad he lost the first time... but hey, at least he fooled the Xiaolin Losers that day. Jack could still remember Raimundo's outrage at his fellow monks choosing Jack over him.

He smiled at the memory. It really was idiotic on their part when you got right down to it, them choosing him over their very own friend/teammate. If it'd been him, he would have done the reverse, or at least only pretended to take the enemy's side over his friend's. It was a moot thought, though; he had no friends. Never did. Not that he wanted any or anything.

Jack's current musing was bringing him down again, so he turned his head in his hand to look at the awesome, state-of-the-art Koi-Bots he now had thanks to the trade with PB. He'd have to be sure to take them apart and study them, so he could replicate them and make improvements of his own. The thought made him ecstatic. Then he would never – was that a burger he smelled?

The teen lifted his head from his hand and turned to look in the opposite direction, toward PandaBubba, and, sure enough, there was a zombified worker carrying a tray with a burger and soft drink on it. For some reason, PB wasn't taking it... Well, he'd eat it if the mob boss wasn't going to; he hadn't eaten anything in a while.

"Hey, PB, you gonna eat that?" asked Jack.

"No, I'm a vegetarian." replied PandaBubba, still looking out over the railing, a content smile now on his face as he watched the workers below do his bidding.

Jack deadpanned at this. Then why did he even order the worker to bring it, for the smell? His eyes narrowed in irritation a moment later.

"Okay, well–"

"PandaBubba! Stop this!" Called someone from the direction of the entrance Jack originally entered through, interrupting the goth teen.

Jack walked up behind PandaBubba, who was now looking towards where the voice emanated from, and peered over the broad crime boss' shoulder. There was a rather short older man walking over to them. The man was rather casually dressed. He was wearing glasses, and his upper-wear consisted of a grey shirt with an orange happy-face on it under an open, yellow button-up shirt. A pair of belted, brown dress pants and brown shoes made up the rest of his outfit. Jack raised an eyebrow at the site of him.

"These workers are my loyal employees," the man continued once he stood in front of PandaBubba. Jack chose to merely lean on the railing with crossed arms and watch how things played out.

"No, they are now MY loyal employees!" PB barked back at the man.

Jack watched as the mob boss then proceeded to make the worker standing next to him get on all fours, the red-head's features scrunching up in annoyance when the food was dropped and thus ended up being wasted. He was now pretty sure PB had just ordered the food to tick him off. The worker was then ordered to roll over and then to play dead. This seemed to annoy the man who Jack assumed was the owner of this tower, since he'd called these people his "loyal employees".

"You lied to me about who you were," the guy stated reproachfully. "If I had known that you were the infamous PandaBubba, I never would have let you into my company."

"_Your _company?" PandaBubba responded, hands on his hips. The mob boss then began to laugh in amusement at the man.

'_Aaaaaaannnd_,' thought Jack expectantly.

The moment PandaBubba stopped laughing, he pointed the Zing Zom-Bone at the man and called out its name, thus turning him into yet another one of his mindless, loyal servants. It had ended just as Jack thought it would.

"Now, where's my coffee drink?" PandaBubba demanded the man, sending him off. Jack, seeing as this was the end of the conversation between the two men, happened a glance at the double doors the manager dude had entered through and noticed one of them seemed to have just closed. He raised an eyebrow at that but decided to ignore it; this was PandaBubba's operation, not his. He probably just imagined it anyways.

Jack looked back down over the railing of the platform he stood upon once more, watching with a bored expression as workers below worked robotically at the conveyor belts.

"Well, this has been fun, PB, but I'll be on my way now. Evil plans to act upon and all."

"Very well, Spicer," PandaBubba said back, not even even looking at him. He was once again looking down into the assembly room, preferring to watch his slaves do his bidding.

"Right," Jack said to himself and walked past the broad man, his new bots following behind him. As he opened one of the double doors to exit the room, though, the self-proclaimed evil genius suddenly remembered that he had no clue how to go about getting out of this place. A rather loud groan escaped him before he walked through the doorway and prepared himself for another fifteen minutes traversing this tower.

Perhaps if he found that manager dude, or whatever, he could ask him which way to go. Would that even work since he was now technically a mindless zombie...?

After what seemed like an hour of hopeful turns and openings of random doors, Jack decided to take a staircase that he came across, going down a few floors and passing a few enslaved workers along the way down that were carrying stolen technological goods. Seeing them made him think of PandaBubba, and thinking of the panda cosplaying freak reminded him of how it was all said person's fault for him being in this stupid situation, leading to further aggravation.

Now entering the new floor and making his way down yet another teal hallway, Jack couldn't help but wonder, again, why they had to meet up in that damn room. If they'd met at the entrance, it would have been quicker. If they'd met in the back, it would have been quicker. Hell, if they'd met _on the roof_, _IT WOULD HAVE BEEN QUICKER_. There was _absolutely_ _no reason _for why they _had_ to–

His mental complaining was suddenly brought to a halt as he heard Manager Dude's voice come loudly from further down the hallway. He immediately ran in the direction the voice came from, quickly approaching another T-junction. Jack stopped near the corner, though, the moment he heard another voice – one that was immediately recognized.

"Papa, I'm not leaving without an explanation!" Came Kimiko's voice from around the corner, sounding remarkably distraught. Jack swiftly pressed himself against the wall and slowly began to make his way toward the T-intersection of the hallway.

When Jack reached it, he peered around the corner, keeping himself pressed against the wall as if he were trying to merge with it. A nearby door was opened, and Jack guessed that that was where the voices had come from. Last he'd seen, though, all the monks were together, so it was quite likely the other losers were there, as well.

"I want you all out of here now!" came MD's voice again, whom he now knew to be Kimiko's father. Then it struck the evil genius. That was why the name "Tohomiko" had seemed so familiar: It was Kimiko's last name! The owner of this company was her father... Well, that was a surprise. Then again, she was rather tech-savvy, so he supposed it made sense.

"GO!" came MD's voice once more, this time much harsher – probably directed at Kim – making Jack grimace. Okay, this was not what he'd intended... A few seconds after her father yelled that, the four monks exited the room, causing Jack to quickly pull his head back into the hallway he was standing in.

After a moment, though, he peered out just enough to see out into the intersecting hallway and saw something that, quite frankly, shocked him. His eyebrows shot way up in amazement. Kimiko, the feisty, fiery tempered, and generally strong-willed Dragon of Fire was crying... He looked at her face for a few moments, taking notice of her miserable expression and each tear her eyes released. She looked so... hurt. His head turned downward, an unhappy look overtaking his features as he furrowed his brows together. There was a sort of crushing feeling on his chest, and he refused to admit that it was guilt.

Omi began speaking to her – something about evil being afoot – but he didn't catch much of it, as he began walking back down the way he'd came.

Jack glared ahead of himself, refusing to acknowledge what he'd seen as being his fault. It was _their_ fault for not getting the Wu. If they'd been paying more attention during the fight, they'd have easily noticed his Ninja-Bot snatching the Wu. Seriously, how many times had he used his bots as diversions in the past? Besides, it wasn't like he was even the one using the Zing Zom-Bone on her father anyways; it was PandaBubba. And there you go. Not his fault.

...Yet the feeling in his chest persisted.

'_What the hell_?' Jack thought sullenly with a frustrated growl. Why did he have to see that for? Why couldn't he have just stumbled upon an exit of any kind and left the place with his amazing new bots and remained ignorant to the traumatic experience he'd caused the girl to go through?

Jack groaned, this time adding a facepalm to the mix; somehow, that actually sounded worse, though he couldn't exactly place why. When his hand left his face, the goth went back to glaring ahead of himself. Okay, _fine_, it was his fault. He was evil, though, so who cared? He definitely shouldn't!

Only... he did.

His shoulders slumped as he thought on it.

She would have never gone through that if he hadn't made the trade with PB. Jack didn't enjoy seeing her cry like that in the least. It had brought him no satisfaction, and he found that he was, oddly enough, pretty okay with that. He was _definitely_ evil... but not that evil.

The sight of her crying had been odd, though, in addition to guilt-inducing. Kimiko never cried, ever – at least as far as he knew. It wasn't like he really knew her, or any of the monks, all that well or anything, but he knew that she was a very strong person. It was one of the things he liked most about her.

A smile formed on his lips, though it disappeared as he thought on.

For her to cry like that, she had to have had an excellent relationship with her father. The thought brought a feeling of envy to him; he _wished_ he had that with either of his parents. It would never happen, though.

Once again, his thoughts were making him feel quite down, except this time he had to wipe at his eyes to rid himself of built up tears. Jack shook his head slightly, forcing his depressing thoughts away and refocused on his current situation.

Stopping suddenly, he let out a resigned sigh. This was going to feel very odd, and rightfully so, since he was technically going to be doing something without an ulterior motive.

The red-head turned to the upgraded Koi-Bot closest to him.

'_Hopefully this works. If they're anything like my old Koi-bots, it will_,' he thought to himself.

"Retrace your steps all the way back to where we were before I departed from PandaBubba," he ordered the fish-like bot, and to his relief, it began to move ahead of him, complying to his command. The evil genius began following it, the other three bots trailing behind him.

'_Well_,' he thought, '_it's not like anyone's going to find out. Not if I can help it anyways_.'

Jack had a reputation to uphold after all. Evildoers did not do things like this; it was just a fact. And he was NOT, may he repeat, _NOT_ a goody-good hero. In no way was this evil genius into running around wearing a sorry excuse for a bathrobe and riding a dragon while barfing because of the constant undulating. NO. _Hell no_. Evil to the max, baby! It was much more fun, not to mention liberating; he could play the game however he wanted, no rules or regulations. Plus, he had the look down pretty good, if he did say so himself. _Neutral_ was even preferable to good. At least then he'd have all the time in the world to work on his robots, as well as not have to do constant repairs to _everything_. There were some good ideas that he was constantly having to postpone because of that last detail. Jack supposed he'd go that route when evil lost its amusement, if such a thing were even possible. Unlikely as it seemed, though, it was still good to have a back-up plan, just in case. After all, it was important to keep your options open.


	2. Chapter 2

"Outta my way, moron!" With an irritated sneer, Jack shoved past a zombie worker that his guide-bot had gone around as they made their way back up to the twentieth floor, the three Koi-bots behind him quickly avoiding the unfortunate man's descent. He momentarily watched the possessed worker tumble down the steps alongside its stolen goods, unable to keep a villainous grin from surfacing. It faded away when he turned to continue climbing the steps, though.

Not even two minutes into this and the odd feeling had already become unbearably weird. And no matter how often he reminded himself that he was very much still the _evil_ genius he'd always been, it would not leave him. Worse, yet, was that it wasn't entirely unpleasant. So, in the interests of ridding himself of his first ever case of Omi-itis, Jack hastily began to think of all possible evil justifications. A few quickly began to arise.

First of all, he owed PandaBubba a backstabbing. The conclusion to their last scuffle was still relatively fresh in his mind, and Jack was not about to let the scoreboard remain as it was. This was long overdo, and with the mob boss likely thinking him to be long gone, right now was the perfect opportunity to finally get even.

Then there was that ridiculous meeting point. The location was without a doubt chosen specifically to annoy him. It was no wonder PandaBubba had hung up on him so abruptly after naming it: the crime lord saw the question coming. Heck, the panda-freak probably planned the whole thing out prior to calling!

An angry growl left Jack's throat at the thought. However, with the coming of his next and best reason, his lips suddenly turned upward.

He was an evil mastermind! There was no need for any reason other than the fact that it would be fun to see PandaBubba's irate expression when he inevitably succumbed to, _'__the evil magnificence of... Jack Spicer!__'_ And victory would be so utterly sweet: he'd have his revenge and still get new, amazing bots out of the whole ordeal - _from_ the crime lord himself. Jack rubbed his hands in nefarious glee, snickering at the prospect.

Now exiting the stairwell, Jack couldn't help but feel particularly dastardly. The goth could practically feel the evil flowing through his veins while following his upgraded Koi-Bot down a familiar teal hallway.

Plus, he was now in possession of three perfectly good excuses to give as reasons for what he was going to do.

_'Not that I'm gonna get caught__,'_ the lad proclaimed mentally, ignoring an enslaved worker that walked by.

This was a black-op to him. No one – _especially_ Omi of all people – would ever find out about this. He could already see Cheddar Head's reaction: "Oh, Jack Spicer, I always knew you'd eventually reject the ways of evil and observe the rays!" The cue ball would say it in his usual happy voice too and probably hug him _while saying it_. Then either him or one of the other monks would end up correcting the cheese-ball, telling him it's "_see the light_". Jack shuddered at the thought.

Nope, _definitely_ not getting caught...

Assuming he succeeded, anyways.

Jack paused a moment to raise an indignant eyebrow at the sudden moment of doubt._ '__Of course I'll succeed__,'_ he thought with confidence whilst starting to walk again, a smirk finding its way upon his features. _'I'm Jack Spicer! Evil Genius, Prince of Darkness!'_

There wasn't even anything to worry about! _'__Those losers don't even know where Pandabubba _is_, let alone what's actually going on here__.'_ That, and the building was enormous. Even if the idiots came up with the bright idea to split up, it would still take forever for them to find PandaBubba.

When the zombie aspect occured to him, Jack couldn't help but burst out with cruel laughter at just how easy this really would be.

"Hey," he called to his guiding Koi-Bot after a moment, stifling his chuckling as best he could, "how much longer's this gonna take?"

The bot did not stop as it responded, "Estimated time: three minutes," its voice holding a stark familiarity to his very own "automatons". His head tilted in slight curiosity, a thoughtul "hmm" surfacing his lips. He just waved it off in his good mood, though. The sound of the vocal box was probably just popular amongst robot builders.

Odd feeling now long forgotten, Jack chose to spend the remainder of the walk imagining the fury PandaBubba would no doubt display at having his evil scheme ruined. He'd just begun to picture PB wearing the brainless expression of the enslaved workers when a familiar set of teal double-doors were once again in front of him. Standing before them for a bit, his humorous mood began to ebb whilst he wondered on if the mob boss would actually still be there, a hand coming up to his chin in thoughtfulness. Would he really still be there, smiling with menacing glee as his slaves did his bidding?

Laying a gloved hand upon the push-pad of the right door, the pale youth began to quietly open it. When open enough, he peeked his head through partially.

… Apparently so, because there he was, looking as if he'd just conquered the _world_. Jack couldn't help but deadpan. There was reveling in your moment of triumph, and then there was _this_. What _this_ was, he didn't know, but there was no way it was healthy. The vision-less mob boss was making this way too easy.

However, it was with quickly widening eyes that Jack suddenly made a terrible realization: There wasn't a plan. The boy let out a muted groan, silently cursing to himself. Ever since the decision to fix this whole ordeal had been made, he'd not once thought on just _how_ he would get the damn Wu back.

Turning back to the distracted mob boss, Jack began to quickly mull over his options.

_'Well, he does look pretty preoccupied,'_ the teen observed. Even the man's facial expression was pretty much the same. Sneaking up on him and snatching the artifact would probably work. It was only made better by the fact that PandaBubba was holding the Wu in his hand closest to Jack.

There was just one little problem with the idea...

The goth looked to the door he was currently holding ajar. When the thing closed, PB might hear it. So, it was after closing the door without doing so completely that Jack began to helplessly search around for anything he'd be able to jam it open with. Seconds were all it took before anxiety began to rear its ugly head; all PandaBubba needed to do was turn his head and he'd be busted. The thought worried Jack enough to make him occasionally peer through the door's slight opening. A random shout came from the broad man when he wasn't looking, causing the lad to nearly jump out of his skin. Fortunately, not a peep came from going through the motion.

After momentarily checking up on the status of his obscurity, Jack let out a relieved sigh, briefly staring in the direction of the Koi-Bot closest to him. He did a double-take, though, focusing on the pointy objects within its mouth. The self-proclaimed evil genius waved it over to him, index finger over his lips all the while. When close enough, he motioned for the fish-like bot to stop and began to eye one of the two large frontal teeth within its gaping mouth.

_'Looks big enough,'_ Jack thought, somewhat optimistically.

How to remove it, though?

Grasping the closest one, he ran his thumb over its white surface in thought, frowning as nothing came to him. The frown deepened as he began to take notice of the texture, eyebrows knitting in confusion. That did _not_ feel like metal. Years of working with his robots made it very easy to tell the difference between _plastic_ and _metal_.

He began to tug on it experimentally, periodically adding force to the pull. It wasn't long before the curved, pointy object came off with a low and quick _pop_ that suggested it'd been glued in there. Raising the tooth to his face, Jack's eyes narrowed, lips pulling downward in displeasure, both at the material and the way in which it was connected.

However, he was sort of in a rush, so the goth just shrugged, opened the door fully, and silently wedged the removed tooth under it. Despite the situation, he did find time to smirk in devious pride at his resourcefulness.

Following the action, Jack motioned for his bots to follow, tiptoeing towards the target of his betrayal. He made sure to keep to the opposite side of the platform on which PandaBubba stood. Briefly, it occurred to him that this would be the very worst time for those Xiaolin Losers to come bursting through one of the entrances, ready to save the day. The thoughts banishment was swift.

Soon enough, he was crouched right behind the mob boss, fingers twitching slightly as he somewhat nervously cycled between eying the Zom-Bone within PB's hold and the back of said person's head.

Ever slowly, his right hand began to reach for the Wu. He took a final reassuring glance to the man's head.

The swipe was swift, making Pandabubba let out a surprised grunt as his body jerked toward the red-head. It was just unfortunate that the artifact never left his grasp...

_'Oh come on...'_ Sourly, Jack glowered at the now-glowing Wu that both he and PandaBubba were gripping, refusing to look up at the broad man's sure-to-be-glaring face. It was just his luck that the weirdo of a mob boss would be holding the damn Wu in an iron grip.

"What is the meaning of this, Spicer?" Came the crime lord's angered, demanding query, although there was a bit of surprise laced into his tone.

Well, there was only one course of action now. Good thing he had four state-of-the-art robots with him. He just hoped there weren't any other cut corners in their design that he didn't know about.

Evil smirk falling into place, Jack directed his gaze toward PandaBubba's enraged glare.

"You didn't think I'd forget about your little betrayal last we met, did you, PB? Well it's payback time, baby!" the teen declared, pointing a finger at the other supposed "evil genius". "I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown!"

The other's eyes narrowed dangerously at the darkly garbed teen. "Very well." Jack had to admit, the guy had one hell of a glare. Not that it was working or anything.

Wait, what? He _accepted_?

"Really?" Jack replied in surprised confusion. "But you don't have any – "

Before he could finish, the broad man reached within his suit whilst grinning darkly at the genius, pulling out a large, dark cloth moments later. The Shroud of Shadows.

Jack stared disbelievingly at the Wu. "Wha– why do– how did you get–" the teen stammered, at a loss for words. It was PandaBubba's turn to smirk.

Aggravation, though, soon took confusion's place. They were Xiaolin _Losers_, after all.

"Forget it, I don't even wanna know," he stated, completely fed up with his luck today... and just about every other one. The red-head then produced his personal favorite Shen Gong Wu from within his trench coat, the sight of the staff bringing a smile upon his face.

Looking back towards PandaBubba, Jack's eyebrows pulled downward together, his grin becoming toothy. The look seemed to annoy PandaBubba, making Jack smile wider. "My Monkey Staff against your Shroud of Shadows! The game is Goo Zombies Survival Mode!"

Subsequently, the golden hue of the Wu began to brighten, quickly beginning to encapsulate both contenders within its ever-growing glow. Closing their eyes against the bright light, they called out in unison, "Let's go! Xiaolin Showdown!"


	3. Chapter 3

'_I won?_" thought Jack, staring at the three Wu he now held, even as the world around him and his adversary spun back into its previous setting.

'_I mean, of course I won,_' thoughts turning more indignant. The feeling was admittedly strange after such a long line of losses. But he wouldn't dwell on that particular downer.

'_No,_' thought the teenager, '_we've got much better things to think about_,' his evil grin reappearing as he looked up to see PandaBubba attempting to sneak away, one slow tippy-toe at a time.

Smirking with sinister delight, Jack quickly pocketed the other two artifacts before pointing the Zing Zom-Bone at the man's retreating rear, its name calling from his lips. Pandabubba's suited back tensed visibly, an all-out run following the Wu's opening, yellow ethereal tendrils of energy quickly capturing and enveloping him but a mere few steps into the run.

When the yellow mist cleared, PB had a slouch to his person, a turn toward the evil genius revealing a drooling mouth and eyes mirroring the dead-like quality of the workers'. Jack couldn't help it. He burst into evil cackles at the vision-less mob boss' state, leaning on one of his two remaining re-skinned koi-bots as his laughter escalated into an echoing loudness.

The bots.

That got him to stop amidst his leaning laughter, face changing to a neutral state before the anger of that particular discovery returned with a vengeance. Fists just began to form as Jack turned to regard PandaBubba's idiotic form again, glaring daggers at the unchanging stupid look on his face, an impressive line of drool hanging from that gaping mouth.

But footfalls from behind him upon the metal floor of this overlooking platform caught his attention. Turning, it was revealed to be…

'_Manager dude..._' recognized Jack, eying the pink apron on the guy's person with a barely restrained turn of his lips. A mental snap occurred as he eyed the tray of food held by the older man, '_Kimiko's dad!_' shooting through his head, eyes widening with the recollection.

Crap. He needed to hurry. The showdown had gone on for a while and it was likely that those losers were going to rear their annoying heads any moment now. Pointing the Wu at the approaching older man, Jack called out its name again, this time really wishing the yellow mist would _hurry up_ so he could _leave _already.

When it finally did, the Japanese man groaning with a rub to his head, Jack strode over to him, ignoring the man's obvious confusion to forcibly shove the tray from his hands. Startled, the man regarded the tray's messy journey from his other hand to the lower level, quickly facing Jack in the next moment. Seeing as he had the man's attention, Jack wasted no time to shove the Wu into the man's person, an "oof" being breathed out by him as he grasped the non-too-gently proffered artifact.

"There, you like zombies, right?" began Jack with a scowl, "Knock yourself out."

And with that, he turned away from the man with a large sway of his tench coat, wasting no time to move for the nearest exit. He was more than ready to put this day far, FAR behind him. And now that the Wu wasn't in his possession, no one would know…

Jack paused mid-stride, arms halting in their swaying as his eyes widened.

Swiftly the boy turned on his boot's heels, swiping outward an arm to point a threatening gloved finger at the still-perturbed man. "_You didn't see me!_" seethed out the boy.

His narrowed red eyes were met with a quick succession of nods, earning the startled man a satisfied evil grin from the lad. The girl definitely wouldn't like him scaring her father, but said person was no longer a zombie lackey and that was that. Guilt gone. Misplaced as it was.

Pivoting back around, the evil genius kicked open one of the doors of the double-door exit and continued out with his bots in tow, carefree whistle leaving his lips. The day had been a series of ups and downs for sure, but in the face of telling Wuya off and bringing Pandabubba's plans to a screeching halt, he was feeling rather chipper. And while he'd gotten no new bots out of the ordeal, he _did_ win a Wu.

All in all, it was a pretty good day.

* * *

All in all, it was a pretty horrible day. And who did he have to spend his newly acquired plant-life with?

Vlad.

The moronic Russian of the Heylin whom came with stories of a Heylin Seed that would ensure world domination. The sneaky hooligan had even conjured up a hypothetical tv series they would form after their success. That had been the deal sealer. And it was an entirely dirty tactic. That much he would give the ugly brute.

However, like just about every scheme as of late, success had been far from reached, reality tv series but a distant dream. No, in its place was his current cacti body, small spikes jutting from all over. Beside him, with his very own matching red flower pot, sprouted Vlad, body tinted a light pink with flowers and leaves sprouting from his body, aligned legs steadily forming into a tree trunk whilst his arms took the form of branches.

Fortunately, a bot of Jack's fitted with dual flame-throwers had managed to scare Gigi away from the mansion, leaving them in their current stuck predicament. He was still relieved that the prototype's malfunction and subsequent fall of failure came _after_ this time.

Vlad regarded him then, a look that made it apparent that he was ignoring these very real pros. Jack immediately returned it with his own spiky glare.

'_At least he's gone you ungr–_'

"I should have known better than to come to _you_ for help," stated Vlad, it coming out with all forms of accusation laced within the growled statement.

Oh, of course. When in doubt, blame him. Forget all details and just jump straight to that conclusion did everyone ever.

"_Me?_" yelled an indignant Jack, momentarily putting a cactus arm to his green chest before harshly jutting it into Vlad's… person? Fauna? "What did you even _do_? Nothing, that's what!" Jack yelled to the bulky blonde. "We wouldn't have even gotten that stupid seed if not for me – _my_ bots, _my_ detector, _my _vehicle!"

Vlad simply snorted without a care before his proved uselessness, air coming from his nostrils like a bull whilst he turned away from the evil genius. "Not surprise, though," he continued with crossed branches, "since 'evil genius' always _Jack_ up everything. Is no wonder Wuya left you."

"_I_ left _her!_" seethed the boy, anger spiking with his thorn's audible bristling. The play on his name only furthered his aggarvation.

"Dah," chuckled Vlad with a rustling of his now-plentiful leaves, "_sure_."

Whatever Jack's teeth currently were ground against one another. And that was it. This was the final time. Not even two days prior had he been stuck as a monkey in one of Chase's schemes and already he was enjoying a _permanent_ species change.

Punching _that_ thought away in-mind for the sake of his "_teeth_", Jack practically simmered nonetheless in his hateful glare at this useless barbarian before him.

The downward spiral had officially lost its luster. And with such grand company to have along for the impending crashes to loss, evil wasn't _feeling_ particularly fun at the present. It was just – _everyone_ was terrible company. Not _one_ Heylin member could he stand being in shared company with! Every one of them treated him like _second rate_ garbage, for evil's sake!

'_Evil. Alliances!_' thought the boy with pent up aggravation. How else were they supposed to beat the Xiaolin LOSERS!? Heck, _they_ were beginning to – _Nope._ He was not going there.

But for the first time in the evil genius' young life, he began to tick them all off, one horrendous past partner and smelly associate by one.

Even with her absence over the past few weeks, Wuya was the very first to literally pierce his psyche, in much the same manner her shrieks did. And yells. And Nagging. Nag, nag, _nag_, _nag_, _**nag**_. And that breath, '_ugh!_' just the very thought bringing a physical shudder of disgust to his plant-form, thorns rustling. Vlad's curious yet still-agitated look went ignored.

How that woman hadn't figured out how to scream his soul from his being, he wasn't sure, what with how often he was graced with the action. It wasn't like their relations were any better than her _rancid_ breath. She never let it be unknown how incompetent she believed him to be, even betraying him twice without a care.

Chase Young, though, was a close second hate, if only for the shortened time he'd made the evil warlord's acquaintance. Unlike Wuya, whom managed to get her disdain through with just "boy", his evil aspiration took to more clear means: insect. His latest betrayal certainly showed how disposable the man believed him to be. It made him all the happier that his initial goal always had been to eventually betray _him_. Furthermore, the warlord just flat-out scared him to undignified screams, he begrudgingly admitted… Then again, so did a lot of other things.

Like giant one-eyed creatures of Greek mythical origin. Cyclops.

Just one of those baths was worthy of mention, but multiple? His nose was numbed for nearly a _week_ in the wake of Cyclop's powerful stench intermingling with that of the extreme cleaning solutions_'_. It went without saying that any clothing worn during it was beyond unsalvageable, fire being the only real recourse. The only consolation was that he couldn't _smell_ Wuya's yells. Add in intelligence supposedly lower than his current idiotic partner-in-crime, alongside one heck of an appalling set of maintenance _in addition to the baths – _feeding, finding somewhere he could **fit**, _toe-nail clipping_, _cleaning his _**giant** **messes** – and you've got a fat red recipe for aggravating failure. And mutiny, if that body-freaking-slap leading to a _harsh_ face-first plummet into dirt was any indicator. It was just his luck that the monks saw it.

Still, he'd take that oversized buffoon over Katnappe any day, the thought of _that_ particular Heylin bringing forth an all-encompassing shudder of pure revulsion through his plant form. A few thorns managed to fall out in its severity. Another odd glance of his fellow plant went ignored.

No one broke into his lab more than Ashley, something that led to a vehement dislike for cat-puns. To further the novelty of her break-ins, the addition of stealing his Wu and breaking his inventions was added to the equation. Always with the same tell-tale signs: cat litter and paw prints with the sometimes bonus of a fur ball or three.

She even smelled like cat litter. Cat. Litter. Not once had Jack allowed himself to rationalize it. What he _did_ let himself think on, however, was why the cat-freak just _had_ to go and free Wuya from imprisonment after the Dragon of Wind resealed her within another puzzle box. It was _her_ fault he had to further endure the hag's loathsome presence, regardless of his agreement with said hag to renew the alliance.

'_It wouldn't have even been _possible_ if not for her._' reasoned Jack angrily.

He regretted ever forming any sort of alliance with her, as well as _this _soviet brute's idiotic self, Jack finally letting out a hateful glare, teeth showing as his eyes narrowed. His pale nose turned up at the sight of the idiot's taking in of his new flowery appearance. The pink plants adorned Vlad's leaves plentifully. And when the ugly Russian's body seemed done with there formation…

It was amazing how even in this situation, Jack could feel _good_ about such a thing, but his cacti form suddenly didn't seem so bad.

More seemed to be flowering in his partner-in-crime's _pot_, earning an evil grin from Jack at Vlad's widened eyes toward the jar's soil whilst it occurred.

But he remembered, still letting out light toned chuckles of laughter, that he was still amidst a thought bubble. A giant thought bubble. One with much less… _stress_.

Really, that was it. He never had time for things, not even what he really wanted: to invent. No, instead it was repair, repair, repair, desperate deal after desperate deal – leading to his meeting with that double-crossing, panda-looking freak of a mob boss _– _and never really getting anywhere. And loss after loss was just getting… tiring. Add in all these morons sans a fat ninja and a thankfully gone _mime_, both of which held their own special flavors of getting on his last nerve, '_and, well, things get really tiring,_' thought Jack. He was in a rut. He could see it.

But it was a never-ending rut. One that expanded with no end. And there was no way he was _ever, _**'**_that's_** ever,' **going to go with the other option. He would never waste his time.

Their opinions were known as well. Even if they scored lower on the scoreboard than the Heylin.

Admittedly by a long way, he realized.

'_Still,_' thought Jack, '_Screw that._' There were other reasons, of course, like screw Surfer Boy, sayonara Cowboy Hat, cya Chrome Dome, peace Master Fungus… bye Dojo?

'_Eh, he was alright..._' shrugged the boy, as best he could. The whole eating him thing wasn't the dragon's fault. It was Omi's.

'C'ya_ Chrome Dome, and goodbye Kimiko…_'

Oh yeah, that was going to be a really good one. Both of those, really. It was just his luck: an annoying small boy with a somehow mountain-sized ego to match his head that for some sure-to-be-idiotic reason seemed to have taken an apparent _liking_ to him; and a girl with a smart and sometimes as equally hot head who managed to have it in that last mentioned state more often than not when near him. Something about trust, if he remembered.

'_But_,' he began to reason, '_evil boy genius here._' The punch she'd given him to the face for her father assured him of it. And _wow_ did she hit hard... How she knew he'd been present for her father's turn to a zombie, he didn't know, but, hey, it was a stride in evil nonetheless. The lights-out hit having been the end to a showdown was besides the point: his secret was kept. What the man told Kimiko, he didn't know or really care so long as that remained true, current change of mind or not.

Because he'd settle for boy genius _any_ day over...

An audible shudder came from him, his body once again shaking in some form of disgust. What did that spell? **STRESS!** Most closely attributed to a back-stabbing, smelly, tentacle-bearing, _screeching, __**ugly**_ witch-hag of an apparition.

Turning his eyes to regard his mostly plant-covered home, the boy couldn't help but not care about its current state. Being alone in a giant home just didn't… feel right. And his parent's absence after their seeming to tire of his apparent embarrassment of them, a long-past incident, having actually _been_ the blender… in front of many guests when it suddenly activated and broke to pieces a moment later…

But those very parties that those guests used to always visit for – and that he'd _have_ to participate in – were a very hated part of his childhood. Boring person after boring person. All rich and going on about their rich things in their rich lives, and when he thought of the _children_, well he was actually kind of happy for the event.

'_Besides,_' thought Jack with an honest, light-hearted shrug… well what he could in his stiff form at the present, '_I'm used to it._'

This time, however, Jack had a plan. One that would _work._ It was already in the makings. Literally. And once it was finished, he'd be blasting off.

It was an idea that he'd had for a moment in the past, but hadn't dwelled on for long because there just wasn't enough time between Wu activations. But since seeing another option to evil, he'd found himself just starting on the blueprints for it, the urge just raw. And he'd always wanted one. It would be small at first, even upon completion within his basement, but since portability was an issue anyways, the flying base's initial size wouldn't be much of a problem. He'd miss a few Showdowns before he completed this project, he was sure, but since his only Shen Gong Wu at the present was the Monkey Staff after Gigi's stealing of _everything_ else, Jack figured little interference from the losers would come. Or the Heylin, considering not even Wuya seemed to care for it.

So when the two boys were finally returned to their original forms out of the blue, they went their separate ways. Jack to finish his project. Vlad to who-cares.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Ten months later...**_

Life was rather pleasant. Not overly fun by any means, but pleasant. However, both his base and bots had come far since his landing in the area with his finished project all those months ago. And after its burrowing underground, the elevator structure quickly extended from its top, the tube-like structure of metal reaching all the way to the surface from its depths.

A simple bedroom with a small bathroom connected was all that it consisted of then. It actually made him happy, at the time, that he'd only a couple Jack-bots left in service, every other bot having _been_ met some sort of end. The last thing he needed was for it to become crowded…

Following the settling in, he'd swiftly begun to look for work, fully intending on using his technological prowess to his advantage. It was admittedly a slow start, especially before he'd gotten the fake ID, criminally priced as it had been. But following the overpriced card's purchase, the work flow came more frequently, Jack settling in nicely as a robotics contractor to build usually-simple robots for companies. Well, simple compared his personal automatons, anyways.

It was just as well that the job payed handsomely, allowing for near non-stop work on said automatons. And since the contracts were for works hardly worth his time, the jobs' finishing time more often than not was short. Still, the time taken away did slightly irk him, leading to his return to work on a specific robot.

Robo-Jack.

That particular project had taken the longest to reach completion. Over and over _and over_ again Jack had to reprogram his metallic clone, chips being finely tuned each time into what the boy genius figured would do the trick. By then, the base had been multistory, the new floors consisting of his lab and a storage facility for his creations. There were always plenty of revision 2.0 Jack-bots on stand-by during Robo-Jack's testing sequences, heavier weaponry at the ready for each and every betrayal the boy genius look-alike always attempted. Thus making his robotic clone the one project that made him return to constant repairs. Go figure.

The efforts were well-worth it, though, because when Jack finally _did_ get it right, those boring jobs became a thing of the past, annoying meetings with idiotic company CEOs a thing of the past. That and everything else he didn't want to do officially became Robo-Jack's problem. Especially repairs, however small and rarely they were required to anything at all.

But amidst his base's furthered expansion and project completions, things started to take a turn for the dull. Awesome bots, yes, definitely so. He'd have them blast any who dared say otherwise. But that was just the problem: there was no blasting. Just storage. What was the point of building the machines if they were never going to be used? Heck, for a short duration, he'd actually begun to have them vaporize small portions of snow-covered forest for entertainment, always enjoying the sound of the weaponry and their varying levels and types of devastation. When the foliage lost its charred amusement, boulders with Wuya's likeness sprayed upon them quickly became a new thing. Admittedly, that one lasted longer.

But it just wasn't the same… There was no one to taunt, no foe to cackle at as they unsuccessfully tried to wrap their mind around how he'd brought them to an embarrassing defeat.

The hunt for Wu was missed. Everything else, though, was not, being more than enough to have him ignore his newer detector's multiple soundings during his new neutral life. It being built into a watch he wore for more reasons than just that function had made its silencing needed each time, something he found annoying enough to bang the device against any nearby surface once or twice for. Or thrice.

His device, his rules.

The only oddity to occur throughout the whole neutral phase was an email received from a certain monk's father, apparent interest in his skills written within. What exactly the man wrote, he didn't know, as those were Robo-Jack's tasks to deal with, but the two of them had agreed readily on a solution: ignore it. "It" turned into "them", a few more being sent before the message seemed to finally find its way into the company owner's skull.

He was done with his past life. In all regards. Xiaolin, Heylin, Wu, and everything in between. The last thing Jack was about to do was waltz up to one of the monk's parents for a job. _Especially_ this one's. With his luck, the monk would coincidentally be within the building for a visit, and one impacting small fist with contrasting power to the face was more than enough for this ex-evil genius. And if her crying that day way back when was anything to go on, it'd probably be accompanied by flames if she caught him within close proximity to her father, ever. As such, Japan was off-limits.

Probably a little extreme, but he never wanted to be on the receiving end of _that_ much of her anger ever again. Plus, the location would likely lead to thoughts of the blue-eyed girl, which would end as they always did: the remembering of her vast disdain for him.

Fortunately, his inventions proved to be a stalwart distraction from those depressing thoughts, and the whole incident with her father's job offer went by like the cold breeze of his base location, forgotten the very next day.

The now-fifteen boy felt his lips tug in amusement at the thought of where he was based, sat upon a bean bag within his room whilst bouncing a ball off the wall continuously in boredom. It wasn't a particularly large room. Just a cozy, dark space with enough room in it to fit but a couple small furniture snugly within its space, aside from the bed; a small bathroom connected to its rear.

'_Iceland..._'

The country's name came to mind along with a snort, Jack smacking the ball harder toward one of the two aged Jack-bots within his room. The bot moved its fist, hitting it to the other present one before both began to hit it back and forth amongst themselves. Jack watched from a slouched position on the bean bag, stretching upon it with fully extended arms and legs a moment later.

'_Still, no one would _ever_ look here_,' thought the ex-Heylin as the stretch ended, body going lax on the soft seat afterward while he looked to the room's ceiling.

'_Least of all __**Wuya**__.' _Prolonged time away could never stop his nose's scrunch up at just her name. It remembered. Any set of nostrils – not to mention _ears_ – would, he figured. His had never been better. It was like suddenly coming out of an extended cold and remembering what it's like to _not_ cough every second.

Just that one detail made it all worth it. As well as every congratulatory sinister laugh and cackle that had followed an each invention's completion. Vehicles and bots. Some vehicles being re-completions…

He felt his evil laugh had improved, a toothy upturn of his lips following. He chuckled lowly.

When the Heylin entirety occurred to him, Wuya herself holding half the word's meaning in the boy genius' mind, it sealed the deal. Nevermind those four other factors.

And just like that, his hands came up to his head's rear in a relaxing lay. A happy sigh followed with him deciding immediately, not for the first time, '_Totally worth it._'

But as always happens in the life of Jack Spicer, things _never_ go as planned. No, not even five seconds into that smile's emergence came a jarring _shake_ of the room. It persisted as Jack flew forward off his soft seat, along with the bean bags own lessened one. Straight into the ball he went in its previous hit by one of the bots, taking it with him into the wall as they swayed their metal arms around with alarmed red visorss. It did not make the best cushion, his sliding down leading to a calm ground…?

He moved to get up, one foot already upon the ground in his attempt before the horrible quaking began again, going through his _entire_ base, he freaking swore. In a bounce he went on the floor, his few items within the room toppling, bed moving back and forth. Turning, Jack regarded his bot's shaking selves in their attempts to align properly. The feeling got almost nostalgic whilst he managed a sit upon the shaking floor, glaring hatefully at the equally as active dark metal wall.

"The-err-r-re a-are r-r-r-rep-oo-rts," stuttered out both of his accompanying bots in dual monotone, Jack yelling out, "_I can feel it_!" at them. And whilst that leaning shout took place, things calmed, the action making him smack forward to the ground.

_Yeah, I just know it's _**them,**_' _thought Jack, eyes narrowing hatefully at the floor with gritted teeth, goggles askew. The Heylin.

Who else could cause these ridiculous disasters in _Iceland_? Who even targeted Iceland? Even knew of its existence?

One of his bots flew over to him, causing Jack to lift his head to regard it. It's chest-plate separated at the center, the two halves retreating back from one another to reveal a large screen. It flickered to life, the flickering footage containing an annoying static to its audio. And yeah, that was 1,000 years of darkness alright. He'd seen it enough times to know the look, though this time it was… kinda extreme. Too many places were already in shambles. The storms too large, too fierce.

Jack's pale face soured, shoulders slouching.

'_Just my luck. A __special__ occasion.'_

Getting to his feet, the boy genius re-aligned his goggles. The trench-coat clad teen walked over to the elevator within the room, pressing the button. In his short wait, the boy glanced narrowly to his bots. They knew what was up, too. Ingrained within all of them was knowledge of the Wu and all the history he'd had with the artifacts in his adventures. Those glowing red eyes were wide with a fearful knowing.

He sighed agitatedly before stepping into the elevator, doors parted to reveal its cylindrical inside. Once within it's bronze confines, the boy pressed a button upon the keypad, matching doors closing before his ascent.

Deadpan stare at the ready, he emerged from the ground right in the middle of a storm, wind whipping at his hair in the locks' immediate drench-age. His eyes squinted, posture moving back a decent amount in the wake of the wind, frowning in annoyance as he righted himself.

A booming thunder jolted him off his feet, though, eyes going wide with momentary fear alongside an embarrassing small yelp before his orbs shut in the wake of the water's harsh on-pour. Reaching a hand up, he wiped at them before shielding the orbs against the storm's power. He raised his red eyes to the sky, taking note of the storm's near-black appearance, many distant flashes of lightning going off in the distance. Another thunder boomed before his now-shaking self regarded the land, watching the foliage blow in the _cold_ wind. Pressing another button on the small keypad connected to the floor's surface via metal pole, he began to lower back into his base.

'_I bet__ it's one of _**those**_** two**__,_' thought Jack with a shaky crossing of his arms, teeth firmly planted together to prevent their clattering. Out of all the Heylin, Chase and Wuya were the most likely to succeed in bringing 1,000 years of darkness. Especially to this degree.

_Or maybe both?_' Those two did seem to be getting along before his departure from all things Wu related. A mix of disgust and horror rose from it being possible at all. Though mostly fear.

It really didn't matter who it was, Chase _or_ Wuya – successful take-over for either would mean his doom at some point, he was sure. Probably sooner if the latter. And now it was all fear.

Yet, despite the situation's grave implications… and proceedings…

"Ah, just ignore it," Jack waved off as the doors parted, striding over in shivering steps past the two bots in his room. To the bathroom he went to change.

"This is _their_ problem." announced Jack whilst he exited in dry clothes, skin still cool to the touch.

It was the first time he'd thought of the monks since Mr. Tohomiko's last received message. Prior to landing, he'd vehemently decided to never think back on his previous life and start anew. It was the only reason he didn't blow up that mansion. Why _give_ his parents a reason to look; he'd not seen them since and knew the resulting happiness went both ways.

But he felt he was getting sidetracked. This wasn't his problem. He was _not_ Heylin and definitely not Xiaolin.

'_Besides_, thought Jack, lying upon his bed and quickly covering himself with the sheets, '_I'm sure those losers will have th__ings back to normal in no time__._' How long had Wuya's last ruling lasted? Not even a day?

With a mental "pff", Jack closed his eyes within the warmth and fell asleep alongside the slight jostling of the room.

* * *

He was awakened by… one of his bots? He opened his eyes to the constant sound of a Jack-bot's thrusters. Worried red optics returned his squinted gaze, screen upon the bots chest showing a world still at its end. A groggy look at the clock upon a nightstand near his bed revealed an hour to have gone by.

Looking to the screen again, he took sleepy notice of its showing volcanoes erupting, along with many other terrible occurring disasters, the sky having even gone red in some areas, which apparently was spreading over the world.

'_**Real**__ special..._' thought Jack with a groan. The bot's worried look was proving to be contagious, though, because despite the rising annoyance at the situation, there was an equal part of worry escalating with it. He hadn't wanted to think about it earlier, but, honestly, how long _would_ it be before this came to bite him in the rear? Wuya was already a known sooner-than-later. And Chase a likely when-he-gets-around-to-it.

He sighed. He'd never get to sleep _now_.

"Alright, alright, I see your point," Jack conceded to his bot with a small wry smile. Its returning thumbs up made his lips pull into a smirk.

"Wake me when everything's ready." said Jack suddenly to the bot, its eyes widening whilst Jack plopped back down into the bed, snoring following the action.

"Yes, sir," came the bot's monotone reply, his imagining of the salute bringing an upward tilt to his lips in his false sleep. When the bot took its leave to make the preparations, though, his snoring was replaced with a frown.

He'd be leaving soon, he knew.

In fact, it was not even two minutes later before that same bot returned to him.

"Preparations are in place, sir," a clutch of its robotic hand to its front following.

He was both annoyed and impressed.

So he chose to just get up and walk past them, enter the elevator's apparent at-the-ready, and suddenly soar to the third level. After a shake to rid his body of its accompanying tensing, the redhead made his way to the hangar, where he found an awaiting assortment of bots.

Despite the inward pride at his automatons' at-the-ready stances, guns raised upwards, he couldn't help but narrow his eyes with suspicion at them. And the whole steadfast nature of everything so far, really. His shape-shifting vehicle was even in its bird form, crouching, ready to take him within. Behind it stood tall five Guard-bot prototypes, Robo-Jack leaning against one of their legs in wait. His arms were crossed, an impatient finger tapping at his side.

The elevator of the third floor hangar began to lift, despite his not at the ready.

"Hey," called Jack to them in wide-eyed fear while running to the bird, activating his heli-pack after a few quick steps "just what were my orders for this?" it still coming out as a demand.

"Swift annihilation, baby!" yelled the assembled bots over the blade's constant whir, it echoing in the large launchpad's coverage as they all raised there fists in proper fashion for such evil declarations, nearly making him still wipe a tear during his hasty seating within his prepared robotic vehicle. The hatch closed as he righted himself within said seat, it adopting a take-off stance whilst the outside was reached. It was much calmer than before, light rain falling upon the hatch from a grey-covered sky rather than a near-black one. And there was a small red hue coming from the horizon of their intended direction.

There was the sounding of every one of his inventions' rockets for a moment in preparation before they all took off with one another, Robo-Jack taking his right whilst grinning sinisterly alongside a couple prototype Guard-Bots that had their lower limbs retracted for the large thruster's activation. Three more were to Jack's left. It was those hulking robots' ignitions that accounted for most of the noise within his proximity, but they eventually settled into a calm whir of their flames alongside the rests' subtler ones.

Behind lay a slew of revision two Jack-Bots, their bulkier builds moving through the winds, sunken-head first with elbow-bearing thin arms of a much sturdier metal than the first type's accordion-esque ones. Their forms were larger, thicker plates forming a more elegant design with a defined waist leading to their rocket-thrusters. And the most important feature: bigger gun. A somewhat slower fire-rate, sure, but twenty of them more than made up for the slight con. The hand of the opposing arm's had a half-sphere base, four three-jointed thin fingers jutting from its rounded bottom.

As the group made their way to a certain temple, Jack decided it as good a time as any to actually have that sleep, raising his legs and crossing them to rest his feet upon the cockpit's dashboard, reclining his seat backward. Lifting both hands, one went to his heads rear as the other pulled down his goggles before joining it. The burning flames of his bots' ignitions lulled him to a comfortable slumber.


	5. Chapter 5

"Approaching destination," came an awakening monotone voice, Jack's red eyes opening groggily. For a moment he lie blinking, sitting in a more slouched position than previously.

Yawning and taking in the far darker sky, the boy genius frowned at its orange tint before stretching. Sitting up straight, he began to look outside the cockpit's window to the ground, belatedly noticing the lack of raindrops in the wake of two active volcanoes in the distance spewing thick clouds of smoke. The whole area seemed like it was covered in a blanket of darkness, a stark contrast to the lively setting it used to be.

But before the flying assembly lie the temple in their approach. In ruins. Flames rose from a small number of the buildings, many of them having portions of their blue roofs missing. Holes of varying sizes resided in them as well, not one building managing to have gone unharmed in the wake of whatever happened. A gaping one in the surrounding wall of the temple got Jack's attention for a few seconds, him figuring it to have been the entry point for whoever was responsible.

Nearing the temple's grounds, Jack and his bots made for a specific cylindrical building the redhead broke into many a time.

'_The Shen Gong Wu vault._' A quirk to his lips followed the thought.

The bots were the first to land, thrusters throwing up dirt in their sudden coming over land. Whilst they adjusted themselves accordingly, the boy genius made his own, clawed feet making a heavy yet brief _clack_ against the stone floor. Engines disengaging, the construct moved to lower its top down, hatch opening afterward.

Jumping out, Jack landed with his boot's thud against the ground, quickly righting himself and turning to his bots. A steady wind was going, blowing his trench coat's torn edges to the right. He regarded his bots with crossed arms, unable to help a grin splitting his face at the sight of his automatons. There was a returning sense of excitement, as well.

"Alright, boys, let's see what we can find," called Jack to his bots, turning to regard just the Jack-bots.

Raising an arm to point at those specific bots, "Jack-bots, search the temple!" Each one of them raised their half-circle hands to salute before scattering, lightly blowing debris in the their sudden movements.

His finger moved to the remaining five bots, Robo-Jack having already taken to the boy genius' side with hands clasped behind. "You guys come with me," the hand moving to throw a thumb over his shoulder at the Wu vault.

Having already extracted their legs, the Guard-bots began to approach him with sounding steps, bird-like vehicle following behind their tall forms. Jack, meanwhile, turned on his heels to begin a stride towards the building. Robo-Jack mirrored it beside him.

The entrance had one remaining door, its remaining half hanging limply from the upper hinge. They walked in without a care, the too-large bots remaining outside. The missing door was revealed to be in broken shambles near the opposing wall in the round room, a turn to his right toward the floor showing the vault to already be open, stairs leading down into the blue-tinted underground room.

"Wow," laughed out Jack, "these guys must have really gotten pasted."

"I always knew they had it in them," came Robo-Jack's happy confidence in them, following his creator down the steps.

Opening the first drawer he came upon, Jack's eyes momentarily widened before he reached in, pulling out the Shroud of Shadows. Holding it up, Jack's lips twisted at its form, saying "Well, I guess we know who _didn't_ take over the world." An unfriendly cackle followed, robot clone chuckling lowly in its shared dislike for the witch-hag.

Multitasking, Jack moved to the next drawer in the midst of their amusement.

"So Chase, then?" The bot was frowning now.

A snort came from Jack before pulling out another stone container from the wall, pulling out another Wu from within it.

"Who else would leave this much Wu lying around?" He briefly waved the just-acquired Eye of Dashi to cement his point.

"Just wanna be sure on who to thank," replied Robo-Jack with a serene smile whilst moving further down the steps and passing Jack. Both produced sacks from their trench coat's innards, mentally thanking the warlord with each pluck of a magical artifact that went by as they descended the steps. Not every slot contained a Shen Gong Wu, but just there being any at all proved that the attack hadn't been Wuya's doing.

The process went by with much chuckling as the two raided the vault, Jack having no intention of leaving the artifacts for someone _else _to come and bag. Least of all a certain greedy ghost.

However, a thought occurred to him whilst he and Robo-Jack exited the building with decently filled duffel bags.

"Hey," muttered Jack to his robotic look-alike, "did you pick up the reversing mirror?"

The bot's red eyes widened, immediately knowing where he was going with the question.

"Serpent's Tail?" it replied in a hopeful tone, it being torn to shreds when Jack slowly turned his head back and forth in the negative.

"Okay," began Jack shakily before either could go off that deep end, "let's not jump to conclu–"

"Jump to conclusions!?" shouted his invention back with angry incredulity, dropping his bag to grab Jack's collar in a crazed worry, "ROCK! _GOLEMS_!" As if that wasn't enough, he went on "**Huge**_ rock golems!_" One hand left Jack's collar to raise with the palm flat and towards the ground as his arm extended upwards in a futile attempt to show just how huge.

"Yeah, well I don't see any!" replied Jack with a scowl, slapping away Robo-Jack's hand. The bot stumbled for a moment, longer arm swaying before it quickly retracted to normal length.

"That's because she's probably already–"

"Sir,' interrupted one of the boy genius' Jack-bots, both redheads turning.

"What!?" they yelled in unison, eyes widening right after when they noticed what it and another were carrying. Both Jack-bots had their small fingers clutching a block of ice from opposite sides. Within, frozen into a permanent scream, was none other than the monks' green pet dragon. Only a couple seconds passed of Jack taking in the wavy tongue and wide eyes before both he and Robo-Jack began to crack up at the dragon's current state, Jack now dropping his own bag to join his robotic clone in doubling over with laughter

Deciding to have a little fun, Jack motioned the bots over, them flying the block of ice over.

"Hey, Dojo," called Jack with a few knocks on the cube, "sense any Shen Gong Wu in there?"

Chuckling at his own joke, Jack turned to his metal clone, look turning to a cruel grin that its receiver mirrored. As Robo-Jack sped off for a good position, Jack motioned for the bots to drop the large ice cube. Once it was on the floor, Jack leaned a shoulder upon its mist-forming surface, smirking with humor at the dragon's face. The two Jack-bots moved to its other side to strike a pose, hands on hips with guns raised, pride at their find exuding from their metallic beings. Robo-Jack, meanwhile, had one eye closed as he looked through a box formed with his fingers, one eye looking through its gap whilst he tried to get a good angle for the shot. Jack was about to grow impatient before a grin split his robot's face, a flash coming from that eye before a sounding snap.

"We're definitely getting that developed when we return to base," called Jack to his approaching metallic double.

"_Definitely,_" concurred Robo-Jack, stopping before the frozen dragon with still-going amusement, a smiling shake of his head passing.

Jack walked further from the block of ice as the robotic redhead pressed his grinning face and hands flat unto the ice. When Jack turned with crossed arms next to the two bags, though, Robo-Jack took a few steps back, fists on hips.

"Jack-bots, blast em outta there," ordered both.

The two bots moved to either side of the giant ice cube, an "aye aye, sir" sounding from them before they raised their guns to the cold formation, firing after two second's worth of an electric charge. Dual blue orbs of energy the size of watermelons crashed into the frozen structure, it blowing to pieces in an outward spray of ice and cold mist.

A shrill and _loud_ shriek came with the debris' scattering, causing Jack to immediately cringe in the wake of Dojo's abrupt freedom, eyes closing tightly with a lowered posture as it went by.

When the mist cleared, both redheads were glaring at the violently shaking, wide-eyed dragon's form. The monks' pet was looking around in a confused panic whilst Jack approached, alarm building when he obviously took notice of the Jack-bots moving around the temple.

They landed on Robo-Jack next, Dojo managing to shakily get out a confused, "Jack Spicer?"

Robo-Jack smirked threateningly at the Dragon, creator walking to stand to his left with a frown being the only change in his stance as he regarded the Dragon. Dojo looked between them, and then to the approaching footfalls of the Guard-bots, pupils going tiny at the sight of their hulking forms.

Jack interrupted the petrified look with a grab around the body, pulling the dragon up to his face to yell, "How did you losers manage to mess up _this bad!_" Dojo's face flapped during it, eyes squinting. That was one down. Five more to go for that hit to the wall his face took in the wake of this crap's literally _moving_ start, old fart included.

Another monotone "sir" came from the three's left, it revealing to be a Jack-bot carrying that very man by the back of his robes, near the neck. Fung's arms and legs dangled lifelessly, head lowered too.

"Perfect timing," called Jack to their arrival and striding over as if he weren't holding the Dragon, Dojo sputtering fearfully during his swinging.

"Hey! Wake up, old man!" yelled Jack once he stood before Fung. Seeing the man still remaining unconcious, a growl left Jack's throat. Right when he was about to yell again, Dojo spoke.

"You release him this instant!"

Jack raised a brow. Looking to his right hand, he could see Dojo pointing a clawed finger at his head. Progressively those narrowed eyes widened, joined with the finger's curling and a sheepish smile's formation. Quickly Jack raised the dragon to eye-level, Dojo only pulling back slightly with returning fear.

"And who's gonna make me?" asked Jack with a sinister upturn of his lips.

"_You_?" continued Robo-Jack with the question, humorous incredulity laced within whilst he approached Master Fung. Stopping before the motionless elder monk, he smiled up at him with a tilt of his metal head.

"Ha, _right_," a pale finger of his captor pressed to the Dragon's snout, swiping to the left. "Now be a good pet lizard," he started lightly with a false smile whilst the dragon's green nose moved to and fro, "and tell Uncle Jack how you _losers _managed to screw up _this time_." His voice escalated to anger, now glaring.

"Wh-Why do you wanna know?" managed Dojo, eyes continuously moving to Jack's double and Master Fung.

"_Jack."_

"Hmm," started the robot, bringing a hand to his chin in thought before the temple master. Suddenly fisting it before himself, he announced, "I wonder how long before he wakes up," opening and closing the fist a few times to get his meaning across.

"Wait!" shouted Dojo, hands coming together in pleading fashion while in Jack's hold, then turning to Jack. "I'll tell you whatever you wanna know! Just don't hurt Master Fung!"

Jack gave his bot a wave of his hand to chill out. Robo-Jack turned from Fung with raised hands in placating fashion, eyes closed with a grin. After, he crossed both arms over his chest with a satisfied grin. A secret thumbs up was sent to him by Jack.

Not seeing any reason to keep doing so, Jack released the dragon, a surprised yelp coming from Dojo as he fell. Landing harmlessly in a heap, the dragon picked himself off the ground, muttering low complaints as he righted himself. Looking up at Jack, the green animal wrung his hands together nervously.

"Um, so what'ya wanna know?" The glances to Master Fung were getting on Jack's nerves.

"Where are those Xiaolin Losers? The whole place is deserted."

Another turn of that green head to Fung.

With a snap of his fingers to get Dojo's attention, Jack said, "Hey, answer the question and I'll release the old fart." He almost said "might". Almost.

Suspicion laced the dragon's eyes, slight annoyance at Jack's insult within those narrowed reptilian orbs. "How do I know you're not lying?"

A fair question.

"_Jack!_"

"Okay, okay!" Begged the dragon with fearful wide eyes, talons waving for mercy. Robo-Jack never even moved, Jack adopting an expectant look down toward Dojo.

"Chase Young must have them. Or at least I think…" The last part came out more timidly, hands wringing again.

"He the one who did all this?" A hand lifted, index finger moving in a circular motion in reference to the temple's current state.

"Umm… no."

"No?" parroted Jack, eyebrow rising with a frown.

The dragon looked to the old fart. Again.

An aggravated sigh and Jack turned to say, "Let em go."

"Be gentle!" begged Dojo, clasping those clawed hands together.

"Gently," allowed Jack through gritted teeth. The dragon was _lucky_ he was neutral.

Turning toward the dragon again, Jack just barely managed to make out Dojo quickly turning back to Master Fung. Jack merely rolled his eyes, turning again to watch with boredom as the Jack-bot lowered Fung into an eventual lay upon the stone floor.

"So," began Jack again, walking past the dragon to the Wu bags, "what other idiots showed?"

"Wel– _Hey!," _called the dragon from behind him, "That's _our_ Shen Gong Wu!"

"Yeah?" called Jack with uncaring sarcasm without turning, "Well I'm not leaving these behind with just you and Sleeping Loser over there to guard them. Even _Wuya_ could steal them from your sorry butts."

Picking up the bags, Jack turned to the dragon's angry yet helpless form.

"Unless you think you can stop me," evil smirk falling in place.

Each Guard-Bot moved to point their large cannons at Dojo, the dragon moving away towards Master Fung whom was a few yards to their side, Robo-Jack and the Jack-bot moving aside. Upon the man's chest sat Dojo, Jack lifting his watch to press a button, every other model two Jack-bot ceasing their search and making for their creator. Robo-Jack moved to Jack's side, along with every other bot to face Dojo and Fung. The two redhead's smirked upon the dragon's shaking person, all of Jack's automatons at the rear.

"Or," called Jack, crossing an arm and outstretching an upturned palm toward the duo, "you two losers tag along and be useful." Turning to Fung with a frown, he muttered "if possible..."

"By the way," he began again with sudden curiosity, turning back to Dojo, "just what happened to the old fart anyways?"

By this time the Guard-bots already had their guns lowered whilst they regarded the two in front of their group with their large, curved red optics. The Jack-bots formed four rows of five behind them.

Dojo's wide eyes were now brimming with unbelieving hope, "You'll… you'll help me save my monks?"

'_Good grief,_' thought Jack with an unnerved turn away when the lower lip trembled.

"How else am I gonna stop _Chase_? And if Wuya's back, then I'll need all the help I can _get_."

A Guard-bot then moved to pick up Fung from a cowering Dojo, it lifting him and causing Dojo to fall with flailing arms. As it moved back to Jack with a tailing dragon, Jack spoke again.

"Now hurry up," demanded both redheads, "I'd like to be outta here _before_ any of those morons comes by for a quick Wu." He began to walk, Jack-bots to the front with Guards and bird-like vehicle to his rear.

When after a few steps the dragon _hadn't_ come to his side, Jack stopped, each bot doing so as well, to look behind himself. Behind the robots trailed the dragon unsurely, trying to get a view of Fung within the one's large three-pronged hand.

Tapping his foot impatiently the redhead let out an annoyed "_ahem"_ to get his attention. When he had it, the boy genius motioned to his left with an upturned palm to the ground. "Are we working together or not?"

The dragon's eyes moved to the two giant masses of metal before exceedingly quickly slithering between the two's legs and up to Jack's side. A nervous smile was sent towards Jack. The boy genius returned it with a wicked one. Then he turned with a more restrained grin, beginning the walk again.

"So, _again_," he added with momentary annoyance, "what other i-di-ots showed?" He didn't want to give the monks' pet time to look to Fung again.

"One quick question first," began Dojo, Jack practically simmering in his stare at the dragon. He let him speak nonetheless, stopping a short ways from the tall temple wall after they passed the large garden area. "What did you mean by Wuya being back?" asked the dragon, looking up with wide eyes halfway into it as the Guard-bots stepped over them and Robo-Jack, watching them approach the wall. They did not stop, merely breaking through it, rubble falling to the ground as they passed.

'_Oh yeah..._' Nonetheless, he still watched the destruction with appreciation.

Dojo's eyes saddened at the sight, obviously not caring for the furthered destruction of the temple grounds.

'_Eh, what's one more __hole__,_' shrugged Jack.

Continuing on, Dojo taking a moment to catch up, "The Reversing Mirror and Serpent's Tail were missing from the vault."

A very appropriate "_WHAT!?_" came from his left, both he and his robotic clone cringing with a lean to the opposite direction in their walking out the hole with the scaled animal.

Both moved to wave a finger in the negative at the dragon, closing their eyes and saying, "Inside voices."

"B-but rock golems," sputtered the dragon at their light scolding, "_Big_, _**huge**_, rock golems," the dragon animated spacing out his hands.

Jack sighed exasperatedly. "Already had this conversation," he whined out pointedly. He could practically feel Robo-Jack's smug look on the side of his face. But he'd not give the robot the satisfaction of looking.

"Okay..." Thankfully, the dragon didn't persist, but his look to the bags in Jacks hands made him practically feel another question coming. "Wh–"

"Can we get to my question some time today?" interrupted Jack flippantly, tossing the one in his left hand to Robo-Jack, both slinging their respective bags over a shoulder. After the fact, he turned a sour look to Dojo.

"Right..." began Dojo, Jack turning to his front again, "Well, first there was Katnappe," Jack shuddered, "Vlad," a glare now, "Cyclops," an upturn of a pale nose, "Tubbimura," a roll of his red eyes, "and Wuya." That last one got a full-body shudder, Dojo now having raised five fingers with his other's index finger over a pinky in counting.

"Pretty much all your Heylin bud–" Dojo _attempted_ to say nonchalantly, with a wave.

"I am _not_ friends with those _disgusting __**idiots**_**!" **both redheads all but shouted at Dojo in unison with no short amount of hate towards the dragon's _oh-so_ untrue words. He could deal with all the other annoying crap, even maybe been calm had it just been those first four, but it would be a cold day in hell that he _**ever**_ took that last insinuation.

"Okay..." began Dojo with a placating smile, moving about a few feet away from them before bumping into a Guard-Bot's landed right foot, his fear immediate when it momentarily regarded him, the dragon fleeing back to his previous position even before the bot looked away.

After he calmed down, "Sooo… does this mean you're..."

He let it hang in the air. Jack gave him a disgusted side-glance, eyes narrowed in annoyance.

"_No._ And don't **ever** ask that again, got it?" anger laced in every word. Dojo nodded a few times in rapid succession.

"_Anyways,_ they attacked, and then what?" prodded the robot, Jack giving the dragon an expectant look.

But the dragon's face went sad after that.

"Omi… and Chase saved us."

"Okay, PAUSE!" and every bot did, the forest only a short ways from them now. "What now?" Jack regarding Dojo now completely with a downward lean, ear-first. Robo-Jack was leaning over Jack's right, looking down toward the dragon with an incredulously raised brow.

"Yeah…" The dragon's eyes lost their surprise rather quickly, though, looking away again toward the ground before continuing, "They saved us, and we got Master Fung back, but… we lost Omi." A few seconds passed before he wiped a tear, adopting an angrier look as he went on, hands fisted to his front. "It was that Chase Young! _He_ tricked Omi into using the Ying Yo-Yo, causing him to lose his good half when he returned from the Ying-Yang World."

Both redheads regarded the dragon with confusion, blinks going by before, "The _what_!?"

"A parallel universe." Dojo replied simply. "To get there, you need either the Ying Yo-Yo or the Yang Yo-Yo to open the portal. But both are needed to leave without losing your good." He ended with two outstretched fingers.

Turning to Fung with a frown, "Unfortunately, when Omi went, he didn't bring back Fung's lost chi," sad eyes looking up at the elder's held unconscious form.

The Wu just kept getting stranger, apparently.

'_Awesome,_' thought Jack.

"Alright," acknowledged Jack with a nod, "So I take it Chase has those two Wu?"

"One of them," answered Dojo, a frown immediately forming on Jack's face.

"And the other…?" an inquiring motion of his hand passing.

"I, uhh…"

'_Oh boy, here it comes..._' Jack could already feel his work being literally cut out for himself.

"Kinda forgot where I put it," a sheepish smile forming that showed rows of sharp teeth, a short chuckle following.

Jack face-palmed audibly, Robo-Jack groaning in the background. Jack's hand stayed upon his face for a moment, ripping it off to suddenly yell, "How the heck am I supposed to work with that!? Tell me it at least revealed!"

A hesitant shake of the dragon's head had Jack raise his hands with open palms, completely fed up, and turn to continue toward the forest with bots in tow.

'_That's just great! So not only is the world down the drain, Chase ruling it, and Wuya possibly back – Chrome Dome's evil too with __**no return**__!'_

"That's just great!" shouted Jack, arms raising in frustration.

"And you've _no idea_ where it might be?" came Robo-Jack's disbelieving question. Jack himself could hardly believe it. Yeah, they were Xiaolin Losers, but this was pushing it.

"Well," a claw coming up to tap at the dragon's chin thoughtfully, "It might be in the Ying-Yang World." The dragon had the nerve to say it like it was some sort of beginning to a solution.

"Wonderful. So why didn't _you_ losers just go there and check?" They reached the forest then, Jack walking up to a tree and leaning on its trunk. Dojo stood before him, Robo-Jack standing to his creator's right. The other bots all moved within the forest's coverage, the three remaining nearest its edge.

"Chase showed up before we could do anything! He –" a pained look appeared, whatever he was saying seeming difficult to say, "He made Omi fight us."

"All of you?" asked an impressed set of Jack's voice.

The dragon nodded miserably.

Jack let out a whistle whilst his robotic clone fell to the ground on his back with loud laughs, Dojo glaring at the bot.

Jack himself couldn't resist a light chuckle, saying, "Okay, so Loser versus Losers."

He turned to Robo-Jack then with a wide grin, "Hey, how many losers does it take to end the world?"

"Just one!" came Robo-Jack's response alongside a raised finger at its creator from the ground. While Jack cackled with hands upon his stomach, a slight backward lean to his posture, Robo-Jack merely continued his humorous rolling upon the ground. Dojo's unappreciative glare was waved off by Jack as he calmed, wiping a tear.

"Ah, chill out, lizard breath. We'll have your losers back in no time."

That last statement had the dragon's demeanor change completely, those eyes widening with hope. "Really?"

"Then why are we just standing around?" Dojo unhappily motioned to all the bots.

"We're waiting," came Robo-Jack's response, getting off the ground amidst his now-ceasing chuckles.

"What for?"

A quaking began, it increasing as the seconds went by. Whilst Dojo's eyes went wide with worry, Jack regarded the open field with a smirk, his bot doing the same as they awaited its emergence.


	6. Chapter 6

"Look what Vlad found!" laughed out the Soviet idiot whilst walking within the citadel with Robo-Jack gripped over-head. The robotic redhead deadpanned to the ceiling of the large room, walls adorned with many sizable yellow dragon-eye decorations. His eyes widened when he suddenly began to roll out of the brute's hold, falling to the ground roughly.

Faking capture to him had officially been annoying from start to finish. Robo-Jack had lost count of how many times and ways the moron used that freaking play on his name to taunt him, even sometimes shaking the bot to and fro with that ugly smile of his. And that buffoonish laugh that was supposed to pass for evil. Those pits' odor was another factor, he felt, since the aroma matched Vlad's face: _sickening. _Retribution was a certainty, even if the ceasing of that particular sense had been _**im-me-di-ate**_**. **Just another thing to add to the "Why I'm Happy to Be A Robot" list – one that ranked quite high.

Looking up from the ground, he saw Chase Young, standing at the center of the room. A glare was already in the works, that nose working upward into true disgust. Jack smiled sheepishly at the warlord.

"Hey, Chase," he began with a nervous wave, getting up. The bot began to approach this dangerous man. This _angry_ dangerous man. Slowly but with a casual air. "I was just in the _neighborhood_," he stretched the word, "and was wondering if you'd maybe..." he paused in his walk, getting ready to spout the false proposal before Chase let out a snarl.

"Do not even _dare_ utter those **revolting** words, Spicer." his name coming out like a curse from Chase's hate-filled scowl. A glow began to form on the man's head, dim, but there nonetheless. Nine dots, Robo-Jack quickly noted in his periphery. "Your absence has been nothing short of supernal, and I do not wish to cease the _good fortune __**now**_," roared the man's declaration.

His glare was actually darker, somehow managing it despite the seemingly 90 degree shifted Mark of Mount Chrome Dome's slight glow. It was the glare of death. The face of evil. Those yellow eyes' narrow slits were practically cutting into him.

'_We're never gonna beat this guy… he's even more evil than before! I mean, just __**look**__ at that scowl!_'

The slight uplift of debris around the warlord was definitely another factor, too.

Robo-Jack only managed a few nervous steps back before a chain sounded from behind, him only just barely getting visual on the warrior of Roman origin, it looked, before the metal struck his side. There was an excess that passed himself, and it immediately wound tightly around him, stopping with a sounding clack to his side. He was left to hop a few times before falling flat to the ground on his front with an "oof".

The warrior grabbed him, lugging the redhead over his shoulder like a toothpick, and made for a hallway. Chase made for his own exit then, Vlad smiling with humor at the robot.

'_Idiot,_' thought Robo-Jack before the brute was out of sight, a few seconds later amending to, '_Idiots'_ with much more inward enthusiasm.

Soon enough, the warrior was descending rocky steps, dimly lit via ceiling lanterns. Many jostling steps later and they finally arrived at the underground dungeon, a long hallway with the same source of light at its ceiling in a line down it. The sides were adorned with many cells, each separated by a sizable gap of rock wall, which was the make of nearly everything, save for the metal constraints within them. And the metal bars. Robo-Jack's eyes went to each one they passed, red orbs going side to side.

Each one was empty. By the twentieth, he grew annoyed.

'_Figures. The one time things go swell and they're probably not even here._'

Just when he was about to turn back to his right, the warrior dropped him to his feet suddenly, the robot's boots barely even hitting the ground before he was grabbed by the head and lifted. The large hand's grip managed to block his view, Jack immediately yelling, "Hey, what's the b–"

Only to be thrust within a cell, back smacking flat against a rock wall. His teeth clenched with the force, a flat fall to the ground soon following. Then came the resounding slam of the metal gate. With a groan, he rolled to his back, eyes looking upwards to see the warrior to have already took his leave, light footfalls going by.

"What? No demeaning taunt before you leave me!?" He turned his head upward. "What kind of _evil_ are you!?" he shouted after the Roman warrior.

The slam had been perfect, but the lack of a following insult to really rub things in made it a waste. The quiet leave was a sure sign that Chase apparently didn't train his men as well as himself.

It would be their downfall.

"Do you _have_ to be so loud?" came the groaned, despondent question from yet another high ranking "Why I'm Happy to Be A Robot". Though she didn't match up with the Soviet edition. Loser monk, sure, even a bit scary, but Kimiko wasn't _petrifying_.

His head tilted up as humanly possible, a triumphant grin at the ready before it slowly turned to a frown. The girl had a haggard appearance, bathrobes torn in a few places, dirt here, a small mark of dried blood there. Bruises and clotted cuts marred her pale skin. However, it was not these things that made him frown, not even her shackled stand against the wall. No, what had him lose all form of accomplishment was her being the _only_ loser within its natural habitat.

So, ignoring her question, Robo-Jack brought knees up to his chest, kicking off the ground and landing neatly upon his feet. A moment of feet shifting later and he managed to turn, hopping toward the metal bars of his cell whilst the girl watched him with incredulous blue eyes.

"Where are the other losers?" asked Robo-Jack whilst trying to get a look inside the cell to her one's left.

"What do _you_ care?" she spat, the bot now attempting to look within the left one. "Like you _didn't_ come here just to grovel at Chase's feet."

Turning to her glare with an unimpressed eyebrow raised, Robo-Jack merely stuck his tongue out at her petulantly. At her disgusted eye roll, he chuckled lightly. She apparently saw it, because when he re-opened his eyes, the girl was gracing him with a scowl that made him happy to not be near her at the present. Seeing as that was the case, though, he returned it with a serene grin.

The girl's admittedly frightening growl was interrupted by his goggle's lenses suddenly popping off, six legs sprouting from their sides. Robo-Jack watched the girl observe them with surprise as they jumped off his head unto the ground, quickly scurrying out of the cell. When they were out of sight, the girl regarded him again, and quickly at that.

"What are you doing…?" So much suspicion was laced within both her tone and narrowed eyes. It was as if she already knew it to be something terrible.

Having nothing to do now, the bot fell backward onto the ground, a happy sigh escaping his lips before, "Oh, you know, just groveling at Chase's feet."

Very slowly, Robo-Jack rose his head to look at her, vile grin revealing itself steadily.

"They're not here, are they?" It wasn't even a real question. If he was here, then the other two would be too, it reasoned. Standard evil, really: Thy shall wallow in fear _together_.

Kimiko's teeth grit before Robo-Jack smacked his head back down with an annoyed groan. "_Figures._"

Silence followed, during which the bot stared at the ceiling with a bored look.

'_Well, it could be w–_'

"What are you doing Spicer?" It was actually somewhat of a demand from the loser. He was impressed. So he graced her with an innocent whistle, swinging his head back and forth slightly.

"Hey," began Robo-Jack happily, something popping into mind, head lifting to regard Kimiko, "a little dragon told me you–

"What did you do to Dojo!?"

– _guys_" undeterred amusement, "got pasted by Cu–"

"Jack Spicer," the bot pausing at the cold tone, "if you don't–"

"He says hi," waved the bot to her with a somewhat scared smile. "Dojo," he clarified. The girl's eyes were saucers upon him. It took him a bit to realize his folly, confused brows drawing to one another, before he looked to his hand. Then down his arm to the series of snapped joints of the chain's that had passed to allow the action.

"Oh well," he shrugged, starting to take off the rest quietly, "not like–"

But a terrible thing occurred amidst the admittedly petty matter's dismissal, things suddenly turning bad.

A bot's signal died.

If Chase saw it, or his minions possessed any sense of – okay, they couldn't be _that_ stupid, could they? How many Vlad's could there _be_...?

"We're leaving," the bot informed her, interrupting her utterance of his _actual_ name in still-confused realization. Her head backtracked at that, eyebrow raised incredulously.

"The Lens-Bot," Jack began while quickly moving to the gate of his cell, "that was going for the Ying Yo-Yo," the bars bent quickly, "got destroyed." He hoped she understood.

"_We're leaving._" He put a hand to a bar, swiping the hand and breaking many straight from their joints. Stepping in with a sinister smile, he voiced "Unless you enjoy being strapped to the wall," chuckling at the end with a shrug yet not stopping. She glared at him reproachfully, only removing her sight when he kicked the two metal restraints on her feet, breaking them off, and then snapped off the remaining ones on her wrists.

Robo-Jack wasted no time taking three steps back, promptly transforming his legs into a drill, getting the girl's attention from rubbing her wrists. It sounded in a quickly accelerating spin, the whir being accompanied by rock's impalement. Amidst the dig's noise, he yelled "Come on, we got a looong way to go," sounding non-too-pleased about it as his head disappeared.

Still he heard her mutter a sarcastic "great…" under her breath. However, he was having too much fun duping Chase Young to care.

"Hey," she called from hole's top, Robo-Jack looking up to see her heap popping out with narrowed eyes, "what did you two do to Dojo?"

He grinned sinisterly at her, a light chuckle following. Then a cackle. When he next regarded her, she was beginning to crack the edges of the hole with her small hands, a red hue starting up.

"Nothing! Geez, lizard breath–"

"_Dojo_," she snapped at him whilst now joining him in his descent.

"_Dojo_" he parroted back at her petulantly, "is fine," the angry dismissal leading to, "Now where are the other losers?" He changed trajectory, allowing the girl a more comfortable slide down. Her short height helped with the endeavor, he was sure. Light was being given off before he could activate his still-present head-lights within the lense-less goggles. He looked up to see her frowning, her tailing whilst maintaining a flame within right hand with a sudden interest to the passing rock.

She said nothing, just shrugging at him. After a moment: "Chase took them." It looked like she didn't want to speak after that, so he focused on the dig, speeding it up in the process with an annoyed glower. Of course Chase did. Probably taunted them all whilst doing so, all without giving a clue as to where. A true evil doer's evil doer.

'_Well, maybe so,_' thought Robo-Jack tauntingly whilst they escaped, '_but I'm an _ex_-evil doers evil doer, _**_LOSER _****_Young_****!'**

Speaking of losers: "So how's Omi doing? Ego must be through the roof from beating the snot out of you three," laughed the boy genius look-alike. He looked up to see her baby blues narrowed like daggers at him. When she snarled at his true interest, he sputtered, "What!? I didn't see the cue-ball!"

"I've got a _better_ question," she started during a faster approach, the bot leaning away only slightly. "If you found Dojo, then you found Master Fung," she pointed out, Jack raising an arm in precaution when she neared with her still-glaring-fiery-knives look paused a short distance from his frowning self.

"Who, Sleeping Loser?" asked Robo-Jack with a raised brow, surprised to only get a literally heated growl, "He's fine." The bot shrugged, returning to watching his digging. If lizard breath was, why wouldn't the old fart be? '_Sheesh. No trust,_' he thought with a chuckle whilst he ignored the flame's sudden pulsing. It dimmed slowly back to its original glow, the flame dancing calmly again. He smiled, enjoying their escape nonetheless.

"You're lucky I need you right now."

Oh yeah, he knew. But with how she'd just said _that_, his lips were sealed, since it sounded like melting him was about to become worth the trapped state that would follow. The rest of the way was quiet.

* * *

Leaning upon the Molar-2000, Jack stood in wait for his robotic counterpart, arms crossed whilst his head drooped. Abruptly, it lifted back up, eyes wide as he just managed to stop its lift from hitting his metal vehicle. Seeing the dug underground cavern still empty, vehicle's headlights illuminating the rocky surroundings, an annoyed growl left his throat.

Lifting his watch and activating its screen, the boy took note of the time. This time his head did hit the vehicle. While he may not have been looking forward to _any_ of the losers' impending presences, the sooner they got here, the closer he'd be to the end of this trip.

A sound from the ceiling got his attention, rocky debris beginning to fall. Jack immediately looked to the area, a hole eventually forming and a resounding whir going through the cavern. When Robo-Jack fell out, drill swiftly transforming back into legs, Jack smiled triumphantly. It increasing in size when Kimiko did so as well. But when they landed some yards to his front with no one else, the grin slowly formed into a frown.

"Hey hey," called Jack to his bot, approaching, "where are the other losers?" He stopped after posing the question.

"Weren't there," responded Robo-Jack, shrugging with raised hands, palms faced up.

"Wonderful," his reply dripping with annoyed sarcasm, not being able to face-palm fast enough. Running the hand down it, he asked with some measure of hope, "Did you at _least_ get the Wu?"

"_Nope,_" the bot passing him now, "just one loser of fire."

"Call me that one more time an–"

"And what?" snorted out Robo-Jack with a mocking chuckle, never stopping in his approach to the Molar-2000 as Jack continued with, "you'll _extend_ the 1,000 years of darkness?"

Kimiko took one amazingly threatening step towards Jack, steam rising from her whilst he grinned, cockpit to his vehicle opening while Robo-Jack got in. "Temper temper, Kimiko," began Jack with a waving finger that she eyed with orbs that were definitely snapping it in her imagination, "you wouldn't want Dojo or Fung to be squashed when we get back, would you?" His watch was lifted, a finger poised over one of the buttons. Oh she stopped, but wow were those amazing baby blues incinerating him with her current look, teeth visibly grit.

"Now," began RJ, sitting upon the edge of the opened cockpit, yellow lens with red swirls in each hand "we've a proposition for you, monk." The abnormal usage of the proper noun seemed to pique the girl's interest, her expression losing some of its hostility whilst the bot popped the lenses into place within his goggles. Jack crossed his arms, the bot doing the same, both eying her with a frown.

"Really," the girl clearly not enthused.

They both parroted the word petulantly. Another disgusted eye-roll by the girl, a slight shake of her head accompanying the action.

"We help you losers take down Chase,"

"And we part ways _immediately_ after."

"Ya got that?" asked both, snidely.

Jack was really, really hoping to keep things short, but Kimiko's narrowed orbs made it obvious it wouldn't be happening.

"Right," her sarcasm joined by her own arms crossing, "until you decide to **back-stab** me, like you do to us _every __**tim**_**e**."

Jack just shrugged, uncaring, "Whatever. Like you have a choice," turning and beginning the climb into his vehicle.

"And just what's that supposed to mean?!"

Chuckling as he got in, "Well, unless that Jermaine kid shows up at some point," now sitting in his seat, "your options for alliance are kinda..." his thumbs extended his goggle's band forward off his widows peek, "_limited_." Releasing, a low pop sounded as they came back to their original position atop his head. He turned to his bot then, both looking to each other with rising grins before they broke out into obnoxious laughter. They guffawed, backs pressing into their red seats.

"Haaa," the ending to his laughter coming with a finger wiping at an eye. "Actually," bringing a thoughtful finger to his chin, "you'd be screwed then, too, since I'm betting Loser Young _didn't_ tell you where he took them." The declaration ended with an inquiring tilt of his head toward the monk, sinister grin splitting his face as her glare intensified.

"Now, I've got two other morons to rescue before going for the cheeseball, so if you wouldn't mind helping me fix _you_ losers' screw-up, that'd be great."

For a moment those blue eyes closed, small hands fisting. A few breaths were released, Jack raising a brow at the sight before she re-opened her eyes, regarding him with more of a glower now.

"If you turn on me," she began slowly, "I _swear_ I'll make you regret it, Spicer." The scowl she graced him with made him more than sure of it. Made him sure she'd burn her way through as many bots as needed. A chill went down his spine without his permission, her last hit upon his being flashing in his memory.

Apparently it showed on his face, because a smug grin was upon Kimiko's as she now approached. It was as if she knew that particular memory had resurfaced. Looking to his front, the boy genius groaned. Good comebacks, _and_ reinforced ones at that. How'd he _ever_ forget...

"Yeah, yeah, just hurry up," muttered the boy.


	7. Chapter 7

'_Finally,_' thought Jack when Kimiko jumped within the Molar-2000, seating herself all the way on the other end of the long red seat within its cockpit. A lean was even added in, Jack's eyes widening a bit when he, too, began to go into one of his own thanks to Robo-Jack. Monk and bot gave each other dirty looks whilst Jack's annoyance spiked at his forced tilt going a bit further, sending a glare his bot's way.

Elbowing his double roughly, the metallic redhead yelped loudly with a small jump, turning to crossly yell, "What was that for!?"

"Boundaries!" hollered the boy genius back at the side-rubbing robot.

"_Loser!_" pointed out RJ. One hand was shaking in its tensed claw-like motion at Jack, the other leaving his double's side to point at the offender.

Starting the engine with the push of a button, Jack yelled over its beginning roar to life, "Yeah!?" Grabbing Robo-Jack's collar, the teen yanked his bot's head nearer, "Well I'm here, too! So join the club!" He ended it with a shove, RJ immediately grabbing the seat to halt movement in _that_ direction. A direction that was steadily growing warmer.

Hmm…

Jack looked to Kimiko, Molar-2000's engine having already gone down to a calm rumble. He blinked twice at her angry form, Robo-Jack slowly re-leaning into him.

"_Drive._"

Shrugging at Kimiko's _heated_ demand, Jack's foot slammed down upon the acceleration. He got a wonderful view of those blue eyes when they widened in shock, pink lips parted very momentarily before they all sunk back into the red cushion of the seat. Then came a hard impact when the vehicle crashed into the rock wall, jostling them around before beginning its quick travel via evisceration through the underground.

"Oh yeah!" Called out Robo-Jack with raised fists.

"Check it and weep, _Loser_ Young! We're outta here!" continued Jack whilst he guided the Molar-2000 in its tunneling, engine going healthily.

When he turned to Kimiko, though, it seemed she was not sharing their enthusiasm. No, she seemed more inclined toward burning him right in his seat with her current look upon him.

"What? You said 'drive'!" The pointing out of the very valid fact, for whatever reason, seemed to anger her further, making him now lean away with his bot, this time very much of his own will. Her blues were now slits upon her glare at them, that pretty mouth parted slightly to show grit teeth. "You ride on liz–"

"_Dojo_ is **trust**worthy for starters, _**Spicer**_," Kimiko nearly seethed crossly, "Second, '_drive_' does not mean _step on it!_"

"Where's the fun in that?" an eyebrow raised in true confusion upon Jack's face beside his bot's wary frown.

"_Nevermind.__"_ Arms crossing with with a more pointed look of restrained agitation, "Where are we going?"

"Forest near the temple," answered Jack, both bot and himself shrugging amidst sitting normally. Robo-Jack, though, wasted no time to kick his feet up on the portion of the dashboard near him, getting even more comfortable by moving his hands to his head's rear.

Jack gave him a sideways glower, eyes returning to his drive with a mumbled, "Lucky..."

"What _else_ did you find at the temple?" Kimiko asked, an accusatory edge to her voice.

"Oh, the Wu? Bagged em," Robo-Jack only saying the last bit with his creator.

"Excuse me?"

"_Took them before the morons,_" groaned the boy genius out with such vehement distaste, intently focusing on his driving. Robo-Jack moved his goggle's strap to cover his ears, grasping the swirly eye sockets then with a hand each and moving them over the band to cover said ears. Music emitted lowly from them in but a second, hands returning to their previous position behind his head.

Jack gave him the sourest look he could muster with one eye and half a mouth, Kimiko, of course, having something to say during it.

"And why would you do that?"

"You know what?" came Jack's sudden fed up query at her. "_You're_ coming up with the next move," the first word coming out in a near-yell.

It was amazing how that pretty face went from beginning ire to taken aback mystification. Her eyes were not so thinned anymore.

"W-_What_?" came her incredulous reply after a slight head-shake.

"You heard me. When we get back, **Dojo** can tell you _everything,"_ extending it slowly, "you need to know. Which, considering, isn't much," ending the declaration's comment lightly.

"**You** want _me_ to plan our next move?"

"_Part-ner-ship," _seethed the boy genius whilst returning his look to the vehicle's navigation, "I'm **not** doing all the work."

A silence went by with nothing but earth being dug through, the dumbest utterance of "A girl" getting his attention to see her pointing at herself as she eyed him with disbelief.

Snidely he replied with, "You actually going somewhere with this?" hand even coming off the wheel to motion its index finger into a swirl, his head shaking. What the heck did that have to do with anything? And why did this _**still**_ need explanation? Wasn't this girl **smart**!?

Her glare returned with a brisk "Forget it," both turning to their fronts.

"Whatever," muttered Jack, moving his own goggles to the same position as his bot's.

He payed her no mind whilst he drove his Molar-2000 the rest of the way, focusing on his music. No, his genius was going to take a well-deserved break.

* * *

The Molar-2000 emerged, engine roaring amidst the drill's massive slices through air. The vehicle kicked up a large portion of trailing dirt whilst it righted upon the ground, driving a short distance within the forest before coming to a stop. Jack moved his goggles back into their original position, deactivating the engine immediately after. Wasting no time, he opened the hatch, both redheads quickly jumping out and landing with dual sets of boots thudding on the dirt.

Through the forest they started to walk, toward its nearby side. Not three steps into that process and there came the dragon, slithering over in a hurry with those talons reaching outward towards _him. _Green arms beginning to wave whilst the redheads leaned away with frowns as they walked, "Did you find the– __Kimiko!___"_ Dojo's pace managed to actually increase, slithering with outstretched arms and falling tears, both redheads simultaneously shuddering and taking a few leftward steps away from his impending passage. Both for the tears and just-beginning trail of _dragon snot_.

Jack heard Kimiko greet the dragon happily from his rear, quickening his stride with Robo-Jack, dragon speeding by a second later. By the time Dojo made the discovery, having already sobbed out his worries to Kimiko, all that Jack was able to pick up was a sad "Where" before he was beyond eavesdropping distance – thank non-goodness – and RJ swiftly began to strike up conversation.

"So what do you think the loser will come up with?"

"Who cares," Robo-Jack immediately giving Jack a pointed deadpan at the angry dismissal. Jack's brows scrunched up at the look, raising a finger to his lower lip in thought and turning his sight lower. "Oh right, we do…"

They stopped next to a tree, one of his Guard-bots knelt down beside it for coverage along the forest-side. Turned toward the temple were it and all other Guards, looking past the grassy field that came before. Perimeter watch was overseen by the second revisions.

"Ah, I'm sure one of those morons will show up before then." dismissed Jack with a wave at his bot. He turned with a grin at his much larger one near him, his beginning smirk going into an immediate frown. There was a patch of blue and white that he could see past the tree's leafy blockage of the sky. Getting a better look through the branches, the bright colors amidst the otherwise dark sky was revealed to be… Sleeping Loser, held within the Guard-bot's large hand.

Robo-Jack grabbed his shoulder suddenly, lightly shaking while quickly whispering, "_Losers, twelve o' clock._"

"How am I suppos–" began Jack angrily whilst turning, his eyes narrowing into a frown upon sighting the hot-head and lizard breath approaching.

"Great," muttered Jack, slight slouch to his person. Following a sigh, he and Robo-Jack regarded the approaching losers with unamused frowns. He saw the dragon point, it obviously being at the old fart. Kimiko's eyes followed, clearly seeing the man through the leaves and branches before her eyes moved to focus solely on him. They narrowed. Sourly, he stared back.

"Put him _down_," demanded the girl once a few feet away, finger jutting toward the ground. Clearly she was led by the dragon. The _pest_. To think he'd actually given into the idiot's plea for gentleness earlier.

"Guard-bot, put_ the old fart down_."

The moment Dojo's mouth opened, the redheads hollered "_GENTLY!_" at him, dragon immediately taking cover behind Kimiko whilst the bot stood. Kimiko's eyes raised with it in a wide-eyed stare at the Guard-bot. And dammit he really needed to stop seeing that. Not to mention those pink lips parting in surprise. Honestly, haggard appearance or not, she still looked absolutely breathtaking, making him rip his eyes toward the bot before he could even think about staring.

The Guard-bot took two large steps around the tree to their side, metal feet hitting the ground with audible impacts, light trebles being produced. Activating their heli-packs, the two redheads moved and landed some feet away to allow it to place Sleeping Loser in an upright sit against the tree. Kimiko looked to Fung for a few seconds, her blues returning to the bot when it stood upright at its full twenty feet once more, moving back to its original position. When there, it knelt down again, upper chassis tilting to once again regard the temple.

Dojo swiftly ran up to the old man, Kimiko turning to Jack meanwhile with drawn together brows. "Guard-Bot?"

"Yeah, what of them?" He didn't care if he asked it rudely, even if she seemed mildly impressed at the present. _She_ was supposed to be coming up with some sort of plan, _not_ bothering **him**.

"_THEM!?_ You have more!?" Yelled the girl at him with a slight beginning sputter. And, as is always the case when in her presence, anger came: "You _idiot!_ If you have more, why didn't you just fight Chase yourself!?"

"Gee, "began Robo-Jack with false confusion, finger tapping chin, "I wonder why? Oh yeah," faking realization with a happy smack of a fist into his left palm.

"_I'M NOT DOING **EVERTHING**!_" they both yelled at her, hands fisted to their sides with a forward lean.

"I am **not** losing all my bots to some stupid, _hot-headed_ scheme that's gonna get me captured! So if you think–"

"_Fine!_ How many of them _do_ you have then, Mama's Boy!?" Her smug smile at his hateful glare angering him further.

"As many _brain cells_ as your father had when Pan–" and oh wow was he happy to have been pulled up into the air by Robo-Jack in time before that fire-ball hit, smacking into a tree and promptly singing it. Honestly, he hadn't realized what he'd been saying until the tree's fiery destruction. However, he did hate that particular insult.

However-however, her intense scowl at him had him figuring that maaaaybe that was a little much. Regardless, his hands flew up before him – also keeping his bots at bay – his own heli-pack now activating alongside a sheepish smile's formation, allowing RJ to release him.

"Sorry…"

It slipped. He remembered her crying that day, _and it slipped. CRUD._

And for some reason, it washed all that anger away from her, a wouldn't-you-know quick, "What?" flying from her mouth – blues on _full display_ – before he could even manage to take it back. Before Robo-Jack even.

…

_Why hadn't Robo-Jack taken it back?!_

Dropping to the ground, though, he couldn't help but go with it since she wasn't about to incinerate him anymore. Plus, it just felt… for _some_ unjust reason… right.

"Umm… I'm sorry?" he smiled awkwardly, completely in unfamiliar territory. This was how it was done, right?

She eyed him a moment. He was not brave enough to try to decipher the look, Kimiko soon closing her eyes with a sigh, steam exiting that little nose as the long exhale went by. "Just get me the Wu, Spicer."

"Okay," shrugged both redheads, Jack incredibly glad for the previous subject's dismissal. Raising his watch, he glared at Robo-Jack whilst pressing a button. Where was this idiot ten seconds ago? In response, RJ pulled his left lower eye-lid down, tongue shooting out at creator. Jack returned it, two second model Jack-bots bringing over a bag of Wu each.

The bags were dropped in front of Kimiko, Jack-bots making for their leave with Jack swiftly tailing behind alongside his double. Robo-Jack, though, was chuckling by his side, covering his mouth with a hand. Jack eyed him with a raised brow in their walk. The bot, after seeing his creator's confusion, leaned toward Jack with a hand raising to his mouth's right side.

Pointing a metallic thumb at their rear, hidden by his frontal motion of it, "She's never gonna get anywhere with that."

At his continued confusion, the bot deadpanned at him, "The Wu? They're all useless."

"Ohhhhh," realized Jack, grin slowly forming after. "Let's keep this between us." Robo-Jack wasted not a second to return a wide, sharp-toothed version the look with an added thumbs up at the plan. The girl probably wouldn't listen anyways. Better to let her find out on her own, unless he felt like having another joyous, flaming-projectile ending conversation. And he'd really rather not chance it, no matter how pretty the sender.

"How long before she realizes it, though?"

Feeling much more sure of it this time: "Who cares." He didn't even look at the bot.

As far as he was concerned, they were on break. Over-watch. Whatever. The simplest plans were always the most satisfying ones anyways.

"Okay," the word being stretched, "then what are _we_ going to do?"

"Don't know about you," started Jack whilst pressing a button on his watch, the Molar-2000 audibly moving from its position, "but I'm catching up on that twelve."

The vehicle stopped in front of them, hatch opening. Jack activated his heli-pack, flying within. He lied upon the long red seat, calling "Let me know if any of those morons show." Then the hatch closed, boy genius pulling his goggles over his eyes.

Meanwhile, Robo-Jack turned toward Group Loser, watching from his distance as the dragon and girl looked through the bags and talked, old fart still sat against that tree. A shudder went through him at just their sight, promptly looking elsewhere, optics stopping on a particularly large tree. He flew up into the tree of great height, sitting upon a high-up branch. To the temple he looked, optics extending outward like binoculars. He twisted and turned the dials on each cylinders' base, getting the focus right.

He _really_ hoped Vlad showed his ugly face.

* * *

Robo-Jack's eyes nearly popped out of his elongated sockets when he saw them – when he saw _him_. Straight down the tree he jumped from his branch, lengthened optics retracting whilst the bot broke through much wood on his way down. He landed with a hard thud of his boots against the dirt, momentarily righting himself before sprinting for the Molar-2000.

Reaching it, Robo-Jack immediately began to bang on its side with a metal fist's underside in a flurry of hits, yelling, "_Hurry up, you idiot!_" with unrestrained excitement. He was now grinning for more reasons than he cared to think about.

Hatch opening, Jack slowly peered out at his creation with a hateful glare. The prick nearly made him fall onto the acceleration pedal in the abrupt and loud awakening from his before-hand peaceful slumber.

"_What?_" spat creator to invention, eyes narrowing at his double's current gleeful excitement.

"The morons–"

"They showed?" came his sudden happy query, eyes widening hopefully and sitting up straighter.

"_Yes!_" answered Robo-Jack, fists at his front in excitement as well.

Jack wasted no time to activate his heli-pack, Robo-Jack's own blades joining his creator's whirring whilst they took to the air. Once at a satisfactory altitude, Jack produced a pair of binoculars from his trench coat, asking, "_Where?_"

The bot snatched the binoculars from Jack, putting them to his eyes before turning the boy genius' head appropriately, Jack's grin growing while he looked. When he saw them, especially that Soviet idiot, it turned toothy, Robo-Jack announcing, "I present to you: _morons_."

"And aren't they moronic," replied Jack in mocking awe, grin going sinister with all the possibilities as he watched the four Heylin approach the temple. There was the one-eyed red moron, the fat ninja, the soviet edition to idiocy, and Cat Breath. Jack turned to Robo-Jack then, bot returning the evil look as they chuckled cruelly in their descent toward the ground.

Landing with hands coming together with villainous intent, Jack let out a loud cackle, those hands moving to his front in an arch, fingers tensed like claws. Bots from all around the forestry were moving toward him, Robo-Jack having signaled them internally. Amidst the heavy footfalls of the Guard-bots and roaring rocket thrusters of the Jack-bots came a shout of, "Hey!" from his side.

Turning, he saw Dojo's much larger form land within the forest, Kimiko jumping off the dragon after. The dragon shrunk back down, getting the girl's attention to say something quickly, Kimiko nodding at Dojo with a smile. After that, the animal ran off for Sleeping Loser.

"Aww man," muttered Robo-Jack, losing his enthusiasm, "I was hoping they'd still be gone…"

Kimiko walked over to them, seeming like she had something to say until she took notice of his bots' formation around him.

Stopping a few feet from them, she asked suspiciously, "What's going on?" They were in the beginnings of her anger already, he could tell.

Jack looked to Robo-Jack for a moment, the bot's wide-eyed, pointed stare suggesting he wished vehemently to leave the monk behind. Turning to regard her again, she had a brow raised, hand coming upon her hip in expectation while her patience visibly thinned. With a sigh, his decision was made.

"My bot," head inclining toward the now-groaning Robo-Jack, "saw Heylin morons going to the temple. We're going."

"What happened to me making the next plan?" she asked crossly.

Before she could go on, he defended, "Hey, we've been watching the temple since before we broke you out of Chase's lair."

"So you lied," Kimiko stated with a pointed look at him.

"What? _No!_" He immediately denied indignantly, a slight whine being mixed within. At her unmoved expression, he continued, "_Fine_, what do you want to do, oh great leader?" A slap sounded from his right, Jack looking to see Robo-Jack to have face-palmed somewhat harshly. He smirked at the bot's annoyance. Looking back to the girl, he prompted far more politely, "Well?"

Robo-Jack could make all the complaints he wanted, verbally or physically, as far as he cared. They tended to be amusing anyways, like the current. That, and the decision on the matter was still his.

She regarded him again, _now_ seeming… surprised? It was a brief expression, the girl sobering quickly before she spoke, "I was able to get a good look at them from the sky on Dojo using the Falcon's Eye," she explained, producing said Wu from a pocket, Jack being unable to suppress his grin's surfacing.

"And?" gestured the boy genius, sure she was going somewhere. Loser monk, perhaps, but dumb she most certainly was not. And she hit hard. Harder than anyone else he'd ever been hit by. And he felt that, too, was pretty tight in its own right. Considering the amount of those there were…

She actually smiled somewhat, saying, "Katnappe had the Crystal Glasses on her. If we're going to find Clay and Rai, we'll need that Wu to do it." She finished with a sure nod, a measure of excitement held within. Jack's grin went toothy.

"So?" he prompted excitedly, fists raising. He _really_ just wanted to _go_ already. It was time to fight! Time to embarrass _each _and_ every one_ of those moronic, **disgusting** past partners. Vengeance was at hand! Soviet idiot included! Robo-Jack and the rest of his automatons looked to the temple. Robotic double and Guard-bots got into a running stance, the latter in a low kneel forward.

Kimiko looked to his inventions then, eying them with a beginning frown. "I don't suppose you'd mind leaving a few of those here?"

"What for?" some annoyance slipping into his question.

She looked at him then with an irked deadpan. "Uh, hello?" motioning toward old fart and dragon, Jack looking to see the latter… rubbing the still-unconscious former's feet. "_Not_ taking them."

Swiftly looking away and to his bots, he flippantly replied, "Fine." An arm lifted to point at a Guard-bot "You," then to a Jack-bot, "you," then another, "and you." His finger swiped toward the old fart and dragon, "Guard those two losers until we get back."

The bots slumped as they went over to the two, Guard-bot moving to lean against the tree that Sleeping Loser resided in a leaned sit upon. It slightly creaked to the side, the sizable bot having its three pronged hand upon the tree's side in a resigned stand, blaster raised nonetheless while the two second revisions moved beside it. He heard the pest say something amidst his terrible current occupation, but Jack ignored it whilst frowning at the three bots. Robo-Jack, however, heard it to be a begrudging "thanks", though he ignored it as well, metal head beginning to lull backward upon his shoulder in boredom as he waited with the other bots.

"Hey!" called Jack to get their attention, the three bots regarding him, a quick creak of metal passing. "After this, we _all_ kick moron butt!" His evil grin was heightened by their sudden raising of their guns further, Guard-bot moving its hand from the tree and fisting it to its front. The happiness swiftly went to worry, though, when a rather loud electric char–

"_**DOWN!**_" shouted both redheads with an outstretched point, those blasters lowering just in time to fire straight into the ground. The earth below his boots shook from the Guard-bot's immense blue shot alone, Jack knew, turning to his partner sheepishly; the other two would probably not even result in a treble from the distance.

Kimiko, though, was looking at him with something akin to incredulity. She was pulled back slightly, eying him... warily? What was with–

"Didn't _you_ work with these people?"

"_**Why**_ are you ruining this moment!?" began Jack with sudden intense anger – why the _heck_ did she have to bring **that** up **_now_.** "We all know," he started again whilst motioning to his bots, "where you're going with this, _monk_, so do us a favor," he began with rude politeness with free hand upon his chest, "and _stop wasting **our time**!_" he progressively yelled out.

"_I_ like to be _sure_ which way the **snake's** head is turned," she angrily declared at him with no short amount of fiery warmth.

He grinned sinisterly at that. Honestly, how could he waste such a declaration of evil upon himself? Even if he was neutral. They didn't need to know. Not yet. They hadn't asked. Not _specifically_.

Crossing his arms, "Well now you know, " stretching out his right only, "so can we go now?" His enthusiasm was spent, the Guard-bots standing with crossed arms now, feet lightly tapping the ground. Robo-Jack was leaned upon one of their still legs, head just now slamming back against the metal limb in a bored stare at nothing. They awaited the command.

Suspicion was now all that remained on Kimiko's face, eyes narrowing at him. But it soon began to form into a slight scowl. "_I_ get **Katnappe** and the Wu," she stated with unwavering vehemence, there being a decent amount of warm venom within it. He very, very briefly wondered what the cat freak did.

"And _I_ get _everyone else_," responded the two redheads, "_Especially _that_ Russian **moron, **who I'm gonna send **packin'**, straight through this evil sky!_" they declared darkly, fists forming before themselves, ominous laughter following. His enthusiasm was back. Screw the monk. This day could not be ruined.

"Go?" asked Jack with restrained yet impatient excitement. Katnappe's fate was also of interest, but Kimiko's sudden beginning serious look into his red eyes made him slightly worried of his own. He swiftly frowned, backtracking somewhat in his posture with wary confusion. She just might have been about to hit him for the number of Guard-bots for all he knew. And though Chase may not have been pleasant in any sense of the word, the warlord never _one-hit_ him straight in the face at any point in his life. So yeah, he leaned away, though he did maintain eye-contact whilst she spoke.

"I can trust you?"

He sighed exasperatedly, leaning back into a straight stand. Glowering at her, he said, "Are we really _still_ on this?"

"Let me put things in a way even Cowboy Hat could understand: things bad now," pointing to the ground with a head-shake in the positive, "_Me_", the hand moving upon his chest, "help _losers_," pointing to her, then toward the other portion of glaring Group Loser before back again, "get things_ normal **again!**_**"**

His anger suddenly went to happiness, though: "Then **_GOODBYE, LOSERS!_"** announced himself and all assembled automatons, the two redheads smiling toothily with joy toward the temple, now, with hands fisted upon their hips.

"**MOVE.**"

Oh, they moved. Jack couldn't have done so quicker, his strides long before his heli-pack's activation, the dirt below his sprint kicking up. RJ did so too as the Guard-bots took continued strides. The second editions tailed their metal masses in the group's rapid approach for the temple. Ahead of his automatons flew Jack and his robotic clone, their rotors sounding off in a high set of whirrs, blades moving them quickly through the air and out of the forest. Their excitement was at its pinnacle, grins splitting their pale faces at the impending vengeance despite their way of travel's natural resistance, trench coats constantly billowing with its passage.

Jack looked back during their speedy approach for the temple through the dimly lit grass field, noticing a small red splotch steadily approaching.

"Ha!" laughed out Robo-Jack from Jack's right whilst they flew ahead, "she finally found them?" never turning in his happiness.

"Yup," replied Jack, now seeing her more clearly with a fiery trail upon metal shoes. The Jetbootsu.

Turning back to RJ, "Have them enter through the front." His order was met with a smirking nod, Jack looking backward this time for his bots. They took a sudden turn to the left within the grass field, heading for the appropriate side of the temple. He turned back to his front, both redheads releasing dark chuckles.

Bots now well into their own route, the Jetbootsu's rockets were clearer now, quickly getting louder as Kimiko caught up to them. Looking to his right, past Robo-Jack, he saw her align with them, though a bit of a distance away. She, however, never removed her eyes from the temple, them narrowed fiercely. It began to form into a scowl he'd only seen once. But this one was managing to get even more intense, Jack backtracking in his stare before turning away. Jack couldn't help but vehemently look forward to seeing Cat Breath's impending fate.

And every other morons'.

Though he was going to stay as far away from Katnappe as possible.

But he began to smile, thinking on his own fun while he too looked toward the temple as they now came upon it.

Landing before the wall with Robo-Jack, Kimiko doing the same simultaneously some feet away on the _other_ side of the gap between the wall, they began to run for said gap immediately as they snickered lowly. Kimiko got there first, rushing in before them, Jack hardly caring since she was technically leader of this scheme. They got there not long after her, quickly darting in and for the nearest building.

During their passage of the garden section, though, a resounding _**crash**_ sounded, them knowing that loud noise to be the temple wall being smashed through. That, and that Cyclops just so happened to be humongous enough to see them while doing this, even if it came from the _opposite_ end of Xiaolin Loser Temple. In a last ditch effort, they quickly both sprung forward in a leap at the building's side that offered the proper concealment in such dire need.

They both landed with grunts upon the ground, sliding a short way behind the building.

'_Made it_,' thought Jack with happy accomplishment, despite the slight throbbing in his chest.

When he looked up, though, he saw Kimiko standing behind it as well, giving him an amused smile.

"Wow, you really work for your 'dramatic entrances', huh?"

Both redheads glowered at her. Suppressing a groan, Jack got up with his bot, lightly dusting his front off as they walked with wide steps, taking full advantage of their height.

"I guess that makes three," remarked Jack with sudden happiness toward Robo-Jack, hands going into his trench coat pockets whilst they strode past her.

"You know," began Robo-Jack with faked realization, index finger to lower lip, "I think you're right," now smiling at his creator with humor. He snapped just for effect.

They were in the midst of chuckling before the girl pointedly asked, "Three _what_?" The last word's growled out utterance had him turning to her with a wary frown as she managed to keep up with them nonetheless.

"Us," he lied, taking the first even _slightly believable_ route out of her anger he could think of.

Her brow rose after that, incredulously, Kimiko retracting back a moment. Then she righted herself, eyes narrowing. "Why do I not believe you."

She could have at least asked.

"Iunno," replied both redheads, feigning innocence while shrugging.

"Come to think of it," began Jack with a sudden tap to his chin amidst her very clear displeasure at being with him, "wasn't that one-eyed moron able to–"

Just when they were approaching the third and last building's end in their walk along the row of them for cover, that very moron's footsteps became quite audible. During the grounds light trebling, Jack looked up from his thinking to see the beginnings of that stupid, giant eye revealing from above the building. Upon an equally stupid red head.

When Cyclops stepped to the building's side to fully reveal himself, the three immediately retreated backwards some yards onto the adjacent track-yard. Jack and Robo-Jack via quick activations of their heli-packs mid-jump; and Kimiko with a swift usage of the Jetbootsu, rockets moving her quicker than the redheads.

By the time they landed, Cyclops was turned toward them. Standing with the other two, Jack glared at the giant.

"Smell really good," he muttered to finally finish, lips pulling downward. And how the enormous moron most definitely did _not_. Jack was _perfectly_ fine where he was at the present. Slightly tainted air was **vastly** superior to the previous plague-like quality it held. Not a moment later, though, and his nose steadily began to turn up in disgust, red eyes narrowing further whilst the other three idiots made their appearances, walking out from behind the building. Each one with their own horrendous attempts at evil smirks, Tubby's mask being besides the point – his fat eyes were enough.

Team Moron Heylin standing right before him.

Jack immediately eyed their conveniently in-plain-sight Wu. Fatso's Sword of the Storm at his side, that Russian idiot's currently-worn Fist of Tebigong, Cat Breath's raised wearing of the Crys–

"Well well, if it isn't **_Jack Spicer_,**" his name coming out like it alone was a joke, the other three laughing behind her, Cyclops' spewing forth spit that made him just that much happier for the current gap between the two groups.

"_Ashley_," her name coming forth with disgust, even despite the anger it brought said moron. "They made _you_ leader?" He asked with sudden humor, chuckling lightly with Robo-Jack pointing a mocking thumb at her, smiling at creator. Victory on a cat-ball covered plate.

He was half-way through a shudder when Leader Moron spoke.

"It's _Katnappe_," hissed out Kat Moron, eyes somewhat narrowed at him. But she suddenly snorted at Jack, losing her anger to turn toward Kimiko with a pitying smirk. As if he wasn't even worth her disgusting time. "You must be desperate to be working with this loser," she _announced_. He was beginning to glare again when she continued with, "Then again, you probably are, _considering_," smiling a Cheshire cat grin at the monk.

Jack looked to Kimiko to see her literally simmering in her glare at the cat freak, fists forming at her sides. Jack only got to look between the two once, feeling like he was out of some kind of loop, before the morons once again broke out into their attempt at a villainous group laugh. He responded with an appropriately dirty look at them, but Kimiko got his attention by seething out his name in an amazingly harsh whisper.

She proceeded to ground out, "Where are your robots?"

"On stand-by – why?" he muttered quickly to her, looking to Vlad with hate now, getting ready for his response for when the four stopped laughing.

"We get them _**now**_."

And that was the first time that he ever liked her anger to such an extent, looking fully to her scowl upon Katnappe with an excited smile. This time, though, he didn't think even a second on what Kat Moron did, actually really wanting to stop Moronic Melodies' on-going chorus, himself. Robo-Jack smiled cruelly at the four right then and there, teeth showing in sharp rows, Jack turning to them as well with just as much sinister delight.

"GUARD-BOTS!" called Jack, grin splitting his face at the three's – screw the too-big red giant idiot, whom was still going with his spit throwing laughter – impending fates. "_**ANNIHILATIFY!**_" His arm was thrust out in a firm point at the offenders, scowling at them, hating their mocking smiles, cat breath and Russian idiot even crossing their arms, a shudder-inducing tilt of that already horrifying cat-eared head. But Vlad's wide, stupid grin was what really got him riled up, those thick black eyebrows of his adding just that much more moron to his being.

No sooner than he finished, though, four Guard-bots made themselves known, standing to full height from behind a couple buildings to their left, over the other side of the dirt track-yard. Their guns' alignment for the cat freak was just as swift, their loud, energetic charges coming to completion.

Katnappe's face alone was worth the entire trip. Vlad's comically widened eyes and Tubby's _actually fat_ ones?

Priceless.

Four simultaneous booming shots fired, their blue masses soaring for Katnappe. But even though her expression managed to get better, eyes widening even still amidst those stupid ears full stand-up, she, unfortunately, managed to leap to the side, fatso and Vlad doing the same.

However, Big Fat and Red was still perfectly in place with his stupid wide eye. Jack's grin went toothy right when they smacked into him, their quick combined explosion rocking the ground whilst Cyclops was knocked into a backward tumble with a whiny cry.

The bots swiftly put their large hands upon the remnants of roofing, vaulting over. There landfall was loud against the ground, shaking it while Cyclops managed to right himself into a growling glare, other morons standing with their Wu at the ready. Looking _up_ in panicked battle stances.

The Guard-bots wasted not a second before they charged with stamping steps toward their targets whilst Kimiko did the same, running at an impressive speed. Especially for her height, even if she was a little taller. It was no wonder she got behind that building first…

She even managed to miss her angry hit at the cat-themed moron before the bots made it to their intended foes, those glasses allowing the freak to see Kimiko's hit coming. Said freak's returning smirk, though, also got his attention, her regarding Kimiko mockingly as another small fist was caught.

The change was not appreciated.

She was starting to say something to Kimiko when Jack called out, "Hey, _Ashley_," three loud impacts sounding from his other side, a harsh gust wind starting up as well, him grinning both for those and Kat Moron's current scowl at her opponent, "do you clean the box _before_ or _after_ you use it?" The death-glare she turned toward him only made him smile wider. It went into a full-blown evil smirk when Kat Moron payed the price for paying any attention to him while fighting _that_ particular monk, Kimiko harshly pulling back her currently-held small fist. Her head impacted with Leader Moron's lurched forward one, an audible snap of cartilage following. Kat Moron's nasal grunt was interrupted by a thrust knee to the gut, keeling her over with another quick grunt. Kimiko growled loudly, a previously cocked back _red_ fist flying straight into Ashley's whiskered face not a moment after, cocking her head nicely to the side with an awesome sizzle as the glasses were knocked cleanly off Leader Moron's person. Like a heap of freakish garbage, Ashley fell to the ground, Jack taking delight in the remedying black splotch now burned onto the cat freak's left cheek whilst Kimiko eyed her fallen opponent with distaste, lips curled in disgust.

Robo-Jack meanwhile watched with a sharp-toothed, dark smirk as Cyclops' backward travel continued after two Guard-bots' smack upon his front, a plentiful amount of dirt already gathered behind the beast's heels. Soviet Idiocy, meanwhile, was mid-way through a visible shuddering quake from his Fist of Tebigong's impact upon a Guard-bot's own fist. Mid-way, because the attacking bot wasted no further time to swipe its large blaster right into the idiot, a loud smack of its metal going by against Vlad's entire side.

Both Redheads cackled loudly with pointing fingers when the Soviet moron went into a comical spin on unsteady feet, watching those blue eyes swirl. Their unkindly narrowed red orbs turned to Tubby then, hearing his lame battle cry. And the picking up of that still-going gust of wind. The ninja began to spin it fiercer, still, Jack being somewhat impressed, given his definite acquiring of cellulite en mass.

Both redheads brought up a hand to block their eyes, watching the Guard-bot's slow-but-sure perseverance. Each sounding metal clank against the ground turned their lips higher. Tubby was now more screaming than anything else, bringing a chuckle to the duo's hand-guarded vile smirks.

A single louder smack of metal against the dirt sounded, robot firmly planting itself before leaning forward. Its internals roared to life, exhaust leaving its sides while red eyes glowed brighter before its left foot kicked straight through the rushing wind, implanting its two-pronged foot into Tubby's fat form. The wind halted while copious pounds of pure fat gave way to metal like rubber, Tubbimurra audibly rushing through the wind not a second later and quickly approaching the dark clouds.

They guffawed at the revolving planetoid ninja, Jack managing to yell, "Make sure to _**bounce** real high_, Tubby!" A couple loud cackles followed from both boy genius and invention whilst they crossed their arms, doubling over slightly with snickers.

They stopped suddenly, though, turning their cruel attention toward a loud clack of metal just in time to hear _and see_ the red giant whine agitatedly with pain whilst one of the two Guard-bots restraining him pressed its cannon harder against Cyclops' closed eye. Both large bots pushed simultaneously while maintaining their hold upon big red arms. Vlad's previous opponent engaged its thrusters, Tubb's quickly making for the giant's rear with heavy and fast footfalls.

The flier reached a decent altitude above Big Red Dummy, swiftly disengaging its rocket thrusters. Its legs extracted, Guard-bot re-aligning itself to fall shoulder first as the other reached Cyclops' rear. During the two restraining bots' frontal assault, it firmly grasped the giant's ponytail, yanking in a backward arch that earned an ear-splitting scream from the beast as it followed the motion.

"AAAHHHH, _**SHADDAP!**_" yelled both Jack and Robo-Jack with some measure of true annoyance, gravity bringing the one Guard-bot smashing down onto Cyclops' sky-facing gut right after and bringing an abrupt halt to the giant's whiny screams. The duo barely even heard a grunt from the last-remaining opponent, Heylin monster slamming into the ground and likely shaking the temple's entirety.

Debris fell from buildings during the rumble's passage, partial roofs becoming somewhat more partial as the redheads let out evil cackles at Cyclops' defeat. They kept it up for a bit, Jack stopping once the dirt cleared. When he got a good look at the giant idiot's unconscious form, Robo-Jack was not the only one to fall to the ground with pointing guffaws.

Robo-Jack interrupted his laughter, though, calling "Hey."

Jack opened his eyes toward his robotic clone, lightly chuckling still. Robo-Jack, though was focused intently on something, a rising cruel grin getting Jack to look too. His own vile smile soon joined Robo-Jack's sharp-toothed one as they lay eyes upon the Russian doofus still dizzily sitting on his rear.

They quickly got up and practically stomped their way over toward Vlad's sitting form, fingers tensed at their sides as they stared daggers through the boy's form. When upon him, they regarded the unsuspecting dizzy idiot with sharp, teeth-showing grins, fingers twitching into partial curls.

"Oh, we're not done with you, _Vlad_," ending their dark declaration with momentary disgust, even in the midst of their impending vengeance. Jack came to Soviet Idiocy's front, robotic clone to the rear.

Let none say that he wasn't willing to get his hands dirty.

Dual right hands made in their descent toward their unsuspecting victim, grabbing fiercely upon a particular garment's band. Dual merciless yanks upward immediately woke the idiot, Jack laughing right in Vlad's ugly face as the Russian released a high pitched tiny squeak through barely parted lips. Up he went, the two hoisting him up to have his feet dangle tensely above the dirt ground.

"What's that, Vlad?" questioned Jack mockingly, moving his ear closer with other hand cupped around it. Leaning in with a sudden upward twist of his lips, "_Higher_, you say?"

The boy genius regarded Vlad with an ecstatic grin, those beady eyes trailing tears only adding to Jack's sinister amusement. A sudden turn of his captive's brainless head in the negative only served to fuel an obnoxious laugh from Jack as he motioned a Guard-bot over. Its weighted footfalls made those teary blues fearfully swivel to one side, a shaky and strained turn of Vlad's head beginning.

When the bot stopped, the captive, for some reason, looked beyond the darkly garbed fellow. The pleading expression brought a sudden confused frown to him, Jack turning to see Kimiko looking to them with brows raised to her hairline practically, a small quirk to her lips.

Not a shred of remorse present.

For some reason, that heightened his joy to unparalleled levels, him turning back to Vlad with a far sharper, ear-splitting smirk.

They let go of the likely rancid clothing, the briefest moment of relief showing on Vlad's face. Just when his feet met the ground, a metal clank sounded, those blues widening wonderfully as he was once more grabbed by the rear of those undergarments.

"Wa–" the beginning loud plea being turned into a yelping scream as the Russian was hurriedly hoisted up into the air as high as the bot could manage, a quick sound of cotton tearing going by as Vlad dangled by his tighty not-so-whiteys.

Hands fisted upon their sides, the redheads eyed him with no short amount of dark joy.

"Guard-bot, send this guy _**SKY**_** HIGH**!"

His Guard-bot lowered the arm until it was straight to its front, Vlad dropping with it until the bot yanked the arm right back up to its original position, cleanly tearing off an un-healthy portion of those undergarments. Vlad's eyes nearly pulled all the way back in their upward travel, biting his lower lip in a futile attempt to stifle his groan whilst his hands came to cover his crotch. Which made it all the easier for the Guard-bot to land a clean and sounding kick right smack dab in the middle of those horrendous cheeks, sending off the Soviet Heylin in a loud yell. Straight outta the temple went that stupid Russian, flying through the dark sky in the perfect balance between evil and – more importantly – _embarrassing_ defeat.

Jack and his bots watched him go, the teen swiftly outstretching his right hand, Robo-Jack proceeding to do the same and _pour_ alcohol upon both hands hastily, bottle upturned and squeezed. Closing the cap and hastily putting it back within his own trench coat, both began to quickly rub their hands together before speedily bringing a hand up above their eyes whilst Vlad soared through the air. A few seconds into the spectacle and RJ began a slow extension of his optics for just the perfect focus. When the boy was but a moronic dot in the dark sky, both goggle-wearing fellows turned to one another with raised fists, Robo-Jack quickly retracting his built-in binocs.

"_That's my boys**!**_" they yelled through still-going chuckles, high-fiving audibly, "Maybe that'll teach em to mess with," both raising a fist toward the now-evil heavens, "**JACK **_**SPICER!**_" Proper evil laughter ensued toward the dark sky, arms raised at an arch before themselves with curled fingers. The Guard-bots mirrored their look, booming monotone laughs of their own joining with the duo's, Jack-bots now flying up and over the ground's surrounding walls and buildings, making for their victorious creator.

* * *

**Ending it there since Chase is so fucking crafty that not even _I_ know where Rai and Clay are. I'll figure it out, though. **

**Anyshits, what'cha guys think so far? Funny, horrible, shit-fic, completely far fetched, enjoyable - what it be? I will say that no matter what, _I_ like it, but others' opinions are welcome too, _both_ negative and positive. Gots skin thicker than Tubb's fat, so worry yourselves none.**

**Oh, and thank you to all those who have reviewed.  
**


End file.
